Ifl! 


s 


* 

THE 


PAPAi'  CONSPIRACY 


m   EXPOSED, 


PROTESTANTISM    DEFENDED, 


TN    THE    LIGHT    OF 


REASON,    HISTORY,    AND    SCRIPTURE. 


BY 


REV.  EDWARD  BEE  CHER,  D.D. 


PUBLISHED    BY    M.    W.     DODD, 

COKNEK  OF  SPEUCE  ST.  AND  CITY  HALL  SQUARE. 
1855. 


* 


* 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1854,  by 

EDWARD  BEECHER, 
In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  District  of  Massachusetts. 


FRIENDLY  CONSIDERATIONS  FOR  AMERICAN 
PROTESTANTS  AND  FREEMEN. 


GOD,  my  fellow-countrymen,  has  conferred  on  you  the  peculiar 
honor  and  the  eminent  responsibility  of  being  jurors  in  behalf  of 
the  great  commonwealth  of  humanity  in  a  momentous  case  in 
which  he  himself  is  Judge. 

The  great  criminal  arraigned  for  trial  before  his  bar  is  that  pecu- 
liar corporation  claiming  the  right  to  be  called  the  church  of  Rome. 

You  are  called  on  to  decide  whether  this  corporation,  for  treason 
against  God  and  hostility  to  the  human  race,  deserves  the  execra- 
tion of  mankind  and  the  righteous  and  avenging  judgment  of  God. 

In  order  to  decide  this  question,  you  are  to  consider,  not  any 
plausible  professions  which  the  corporation  may  put  forth,  but  the 
organic  laws  of  the  corporation,  its  avowed  principles,  the  inevitable 
tendency  of  such  laws  and  principles,  and  finally  the  actual  results 
of  these  tendencies  as  imbodied  in  history.  When  you  have  in- 
telligently considered  these  things,  you  will  be  able  to  decide  wha 
this  corporation  is  and  what  ought  to  be  its  doom. 

You  are  therefore  called  on  also  to  decide  whether  this  corpora- 
tion has  changed  for  the  better  or  not  since  its  principles  were  fully 
developed  during  the  era  or  dispensation  of  their  notorious  head, 
Gregory  VII.,  sometimes  called  Hildebrand;  whether  the  lion's 
claws  that  it  then  had  have  been  extracted,  or  only  concealed; 

(3) 


4  FRIENDLY  CONSIDERATIONS 

•whether  its  teeth  have  been  knocked  out,  or  only  hidden  till  it 
can  find  another  opportunity  to  bite  and  devour.  On  these  points 
some  of  the  orators  of  the  corporation  have  made  most  beautiful 
and  touching  appeals,  protesting  that  in  these  auspicious  days  of 
liberality  the  lion  has  laid  aside  its  ancient  ferocity  and  repented 
of  its  bloody  deeds,  and  is  ready  to  lie  down  with  the  lamb,  and  the 
leopard  with  the  kid,  and  that  a  little  child  can  lead  them.  «5fou, 
as  good  men  and  true,  are  called  upon  to  say  upon  your  oaths 
whether  you  find  that  there  is  any  evidence  that  this  blessed  trans- 
formation has  taken  place. 

Indeed,  in  coming  to  your  ultimate  results,  you  are  called  on  to 
decide  a  still  more  important  question  —  that  is  to  say,  What  is  the 
character  of  this  corporation  for  truth  and  fidelity  to  engagements  ? 
You  are  called  on  to  decide  whether  it  is  ever  safe  to  trust  any  af- 
firmations or  denials  of  this  corporation,  or  of  any  of  its  agents,  as 
to  any  matters  of  fact  touching  their  own  interests  or  involved  in 
their  own  defence. 

You  are  therefore  called  on  to  decide,  first,  What  has  been  the 
character  of  this  corporation  in  these  respects  in  ages  past  ?  And 
if  you  find  that  it  has  been  infamous  to  the  last  degree,  then  you 
are  to  decide  whether  it  has  ever  repented  and  brought  forth  works 
meet  for  repentance,  so  as  at  last  to  deserve  to  be  admitted  into 
decent,  civilized,  and  Christian  society. 

Not  merely  in  ages  past,  but  also  at  the  present  day,  this  corpora- 
tion has  promulgated  certain  bills  of  rights  designed  to  define  the 
extent  of  their  own  claims  and  prerogatives.  These  may,  by  way  of 
distinction,  be  called  the  Papal  bills  of  rights.  On  these  you  are 
also  called  to  sit  in  judgment.  The  amount  of  them  in  brief  is 
this :  This  Papal  corporation  have  avowed  a  conscientious  convic- 
tion that  God  has  empowered  them  to  do  all  the  thinking  of  all 
mankind  on  all  points  of  Christian  faith  and  practice,  and  that  he 
has  retired  all  the  rest  of  mankind  to  think  as  this  corporation 
thinks,  on  pain  of  eternal  damnation ;  also  that  God  has  given  them 


FOR  AMERICAN  PROTESTANTS  AND  FREEMEN.  5 

full  power  over  kings  and  all  rulers,  to  use  them  as  instruments  in 
enforcing  this  right,  by  crusades,  confiscations,  proscriptions,  and 
boundless  slaughters.  Such  are  their  avowed  and  conscientious 
convictions  on  these  important  and  interesting  topics. 

Their  ideas  of  their  own  rights  of  conscience  correspond ;  that 
is  to  say,  they  claim  the  right  to  act  out  these  conscientious  convic- 
tions without  let  or  impediment.  This  is  in  brief  the  bill  of  Papal 
rights  of  conscience. 

Their  ideas  of  the  rights  of  conscience  in  all  others  are  no  less 
interesting  and  instructive.  They  liberally  concede  to  all  mankind 
the  right  to  obey  such  laws  and  decisions  of  all  sorts  as  they  shall 
declare  that  God  has  promulgated  through  themselves,  and  none 
others  in  contravention  of  these.  In  short,  their  theory  of  the  rights 
of  man  is  in  brief  this :  That  all  mankind  have  an  inalienable  right 
to  obey  the  laws  of  the  Papal  corporation,  and  that  all  who  refuse  to 
obey  these  laws  have  no  other  rights  whatever. 

The  doctrines  of  this  corporation  on  the  subject  of  persecution  are 
no  less  instructive.  They  are  these :  — 

Inasmuch  as  God  has  given  to  them  the  rights  of  conscience  above 
stated,  it  is  not  persecution  in  them  to  carry  those  rights  into  full 
and  perfect  effect,  by  deposing  rebellious  kings  and  rulers,  and  by 
using  such  rulers  as  are  obedient  to  them,  in  the  laudable  and  divine 
work  of  torturing,  and  then  butchering  or  burning,  all  rebels  against 
Papal  authority,  confiscating  their  goods,  and  rendering  them  and 
their  children  infamous  forever.  For  the  Papal  corporation  to  do 
all  this  is  not  persecution,  but  the  exercise  of  just  authority. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  any  man  shall  have  the  hardihood  and 
audacity  even  secretly  to  think  that  this  is  wrong,  and  much  more  to 
say  so,  that  man  is  a  persecutor.  Much  more  is  he  a  persecutor  if 
he  shall  dare  to  endeavor  to  create  a  public  sentiment  that  shall 
throw  infamy  upon  the  corporation  simply  because  they  have  exer- 
cised their  just  rights  of  conscience  in  butchering  a  few  millions  of 
heretics  —  say,  for  example,  about  fifty  millions,  more  or  less. 
1* 


6  FRIENDLY  CONSIDERATIONS 

Still  more,  it  would  be  inexcusable  persecution  for  this  nation  to 
pass  any  laws  to  prevent  them  from  gaining,  as  soon  as  possible,  the 
ability  to  carry  out  their  rights  of  conscience  aforesaid  in  this  country. 

In  particular,  if  the  head  of  the  corporation  shall  send  to  this 
country  pecuniary  agents,  whom,  he  sees  fit  to  call  bishops,  and  to 
concentrate  in  them  all  the  property  of  all  the  religious  societies  in 
this  land  who  own  his  sway,  as  one  means  of  gaining  the  power  at 
which  he  aims,  then  to  interpose  by  law  to  prohibit  and  prevent 
such  accumulation  would  be  a  still  higher  grade  of  persecution. 

Above  all,  to  expel  by  law  from  this  land  the  sworn  pecuniary 
agents  of  the  foreign  head  of  this  corporation,  even  although  they 
should  be  manifestly,  and  openly,  and  undeniably  guilty  of  a  treason- 
able conspiracy  with  foreign  Romish  powers  to  subvert  the  consti- 
tution and  laws  of  these  United  States  and  of  each  particular  state 
in  this  confederacy,  would  be  the  summit  of  persecution.  This  is 
self-evident ;  because  any  government  that  refuses  to  submit  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  this  corporation  has  no  right  to  exist,  and  therefore  it 
is  a  duty  to  conspire  to  overthrow  it.  Indeed  it  is  the  conscientious 
conviction  of  the  members  of  this  corporation  that  they  are  called 
on,  AS  SOON  AS  THEY  CAN  GET  THE  POWER,  to  rule  all  such  govern- 
ments with  a  rod  of  iron  and  to  dash  them  in  pieces  like  a  potter's 
vessel. 

That  these  are  the  present  claims  of  this  corporation,  without  col- 
oring or  exaggeration,  I  think  you  will  be  satisfied  when  you  shall 
have  read  the  evidence  adduced  in  this  volume,  which  is  but  a 
small  part  of  what  could  be  offered. 

I  will,  however,  in  this  place  present  one  item  more,  which  I  re- 
quest you  to  consider  in  connection  with  that  in  the  body  of  this 
work. 

Pope  Pius  VII.,  whose  papacy  occupied  nearly  the  first  quarter 
of  the  present  century,  gave  to  his  nuncio  at  Vienna  the  following 
instructions,  in  view  of  the  claims  of  certain  Protestant  princes  on 
his  ecclesiastical  property  in  Germany  for  indemnity  for  certain 


FOR  AMERICAN  PROTESTANTS  AND  FREEMEN.  7 

injuries.  He  says,  "  Not  only  has  the  church  succeeded  to  prevent 
heretics  from  possessing  themselves  of  ecclesiastical  property,  but 
she  has  established  the  confiscation  and  the  loss  of  goods  as  the 
punishment  of  those  guilty  of  the  crime  of  heresy.  This  punish- 
ment, as  it  respects  the  goods  of  individuals,  is  decreed  by  a  bull 
of  Innocent  III. ;  and,  in  respect  of  principalities  and  fiefs,  it  is  a 
rule  of  the  canon  law  (Chap.  Absolutes  xvi.,  De  Hsereticis)  that  the 
subjects  of  an  heretical  prince  are  enfranchised  from  every  duty  to- 
wards him  and  dispensed  from  all  fealty  and  homage.  However 
slightly  one  may  be  versed  in  history,  he  cannot  but  know  that  sen- 
tences of  deposition  have  been  pronounced  by  pontiffs  and  by 
councils  against  princes  guilty  of  heresy.  Indeed  we  have  fallen 
upon  such  calamitous  times,  times  of  such  humiliation  to  the 
spouse  of  Jesus  Christ,  (!)  that  it  is  not  possible  for  her  to  practise 
nor  expedient  to  invoke  HER  MOST  SACRED  MAXIMS  OF  JUST  RIGOR 
against  the  enemies  and  rebels  of  the  faith.  But,  if  she  cannot 
exercise  HER  RIGHT  of  deposing  heretics  from  their  principalities 
and  of  declaring  their  goods  forfeited,  can  she  ever  positively  per- 
mit herself  to  be  despoiled  to  add  to  them  new  principalities  and  new 
goods  ?  What  occasion  of  deriding  the  church  would  not  be  given 
to  the  heretics  and  unbelievers  themselves,  who,  insulting  over  her 
grief,  would  say  that  means  at  length  had  been  found  out  TO  MAKE 
HER  TOLERANT  !  "  Such  are  the  doctrines  of  this  corporation  in  the 
nineteenth  century. 

This  interesting  document  was  obtained  by  M.  Daunou  from  the 
archives  of  the  Vatican  when  they  were  removed  by  Bonaparte  to 
Paris,  and  were  by  the  government  committed  to  him  for  custody. 
The  Italian  original  may  be  found  in  the  second  volume  of  his  able 
History  of  the  Court  of  Rome.  This  invaluable  work  every  Ameri- 
can ought  to  study,  though  its  author  is  a  lay  Romanist.  Of  him  I 
have  said  more  in  another  part  of  my  work. 

In  the  light  of  this  equitable  document,  we  see  clearly  that  the 
Romish  church,  so  called,  is  under  no  obligation  to  make  any  com- 


8  FRIENDLY  CONSIDERATIONS 

pensation  to  Protestants  for  any  injuries  -whatever  in  the  shape,  for 
example,  of  deposition,  confiscation,  plunder,  murder,  &c. ;  for  it  is 
HER  RIGHT  to  do  such  things  to  heretics,  and  her  MOST  SACRED 
MAXIMS  OF  JUST  RIGOR  require  her  to  do  them,  whenever  she  can 

But  how  is  it  with  regard  to  Protestants  ?  Even  thus  :  If  a  mob, 
without  violence  to  life,  happens  to  burn  a  single  convent,  then  THE 
STATE  OF  MASSACHUSETTS  is  to  be  held  up  to  eternal  infamy  by  the 
pope,  and  all  his  pecuniary  agents  called  bishops,  if  she  refuses  to 
make  restitution  to  the  Romish  corporation  to  the  uttermost  farthing. 

Accordingly  the  Papal  corporation  never  has  made  any  restitution, 
and  intends  never  to  make  any  restitution,  for  cities  sacked,  churches 
burned,  families  plundered  of  their  all,  husbands  and  wives,  parents 
and  children,  tortured  and  butchered  by  it  with  the  most  savage 
ferocity.  The  MOST  SACRED  MAXIMS  OF  JUST  RIGOR  established 
by  that  corporation  authorize  and  demand  all  these  things ;  for  it  is 
self-evident  that  rebels  against  this  corporation  have  no  rights.  But, 
if  this  state  shall  not  make  full  restitution  for  property  which  they 
did  not  destroy,  human  language  cannot  utter  the  infamy  and  the 
deep  damnation  that  this  corporation  will  assign  to  all  her  Protestant 
citizens  for  such  atrocious  persecution. 

Moreover  from  this  document  it  appears  that  this  gentle  spouse 
of  Christ  is  dissolved  in  grief  in  view  of  the  present  calamitous  times, 
which  prevent  her  from  fully  exercising  her  just  rights  of  confiscation 
and  murder,  and  regards  the  very  supposition  by  the  heretics  that 
any  means  can  possibly  be  founfl  out  sufficiently  powerful  TO  MAKE 
HER  TOLERANT  an  insult  over  her  grief. 

What  heart  can  be  so  hard  as  not  to  be  touched  with  sympathetic 
sorrow  in  view  of  such  deep  grief  of  this  most  interesting  and  affec- 
tionate corporation  ? 

That  the  present  pope,  Pius  IX.,  fully  sympathizes  with  these 
views,  is  plain  from  his  brief  dated  June  10,  1851,  in  condemnation 
of  Francis  G.  Vigil,  of  Lima,  Peru,  which  I  have  not  room  to  quote, 
and  from  his  allocution  to  the  cardinals  of  the  church,  delivered 


FOR  AMERICAN  PROTESTANTS  AND   FREEMEN.  9 

September,  1851,  in  which,  he  says  that  "he  hath  taken  this  prin- 
ciple for  basis,  that  the  Catholic  religion,  with  all  its  rights,  ought  to  be 
exclusively  dominant  in  such  sort  that  every  other  worship  shall  be 
banislied  and  interdicted."  Well  then  may  he,  as  he  does,  unite  with 
his  bishops  in  this  country  in  applauding  0.  A.  Brownson's  maga- 
zine. Moreover  I  shall  show  in  my  work  that  the  doctrines  which 
I  have  just  stated  are  an  essential  part  of  the  constitutional  law  of 
this  corporation,  and  that  they  are  at  this  day  taught  and  defended  by 
Mr.  Brownson  and  sanctioned  by  the  Bishops  of  Rome  at  present 
sojourning  in  these  United  States. 

On  these  principles,  then,  you  are  called  by  the  providence  of 
God  to  sit  in  judgment,  and  to  decide  whether  the  principles  of  our 
government  were  designed  to  defend  such  rights  of  such  consciences 
and  to  protect  and  establish  the  claims  and  authority  of  such  a  cor- 
poration. 

You  are  also  called  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  influence  of  the 
corporation  putting  forth  such  claims  upon  all  the  religious,  civil, 
and  social  interests  of  the  community  in  ages  past  and  at  this  day. 
Especially  are  you  called  onto  decide  upon  the  influence  of  the  celi- 
bacy of  the  clergy  in  connection  with  the  confessional,  and  also  of  the 
whole  system  of  monasteries  and  nunneries  established  in  this  land. 
No  other  subject  more  deeply  affects  the  interests  of  the  future  mil 
lions  of  this  continent,  which  God  has  given  in  trust  to  you. 

You  are  also  called  upon  to  consider  upon  what  grounds  the  mem 
bers  of  this  corporation  base  their  claims  to  such  prerogatives  and 
rights  as  they  arrogate  to  themselves ;  whether  they  have,  indeed, 
a  divine  warrant  for  them,  or  whether  they  are  based  upon  a  foun- 
dation of  forgeries  and  frauds  as  atrocious  as  their  claims  are  all- 
comprehending  and  exclusive. 

My  object  in  this  volume  is  to  furnish  you  with  some  authentic 
evidence  for  your  careful  consideration  in  forming  your  judgment 
on  all  these  momentous  questions. 

God's  great  books  of  revelation  and  of  history  are  open  before  this 


10      CONSIDERATIONS  FOE  PROTESTANTS  AND   FREEMEN. 

nation.  The  evidence  which  I  adduce  is  derived  from  their  pages. 
The  foundations  of  this  corporation  I  have  examined  and  the  process 
of  its  formation.  I  have  given  an  historical  view  of  the  deeds  of 
three  of  its  leading  master  builders  —  one  of  them  the  patron  saint 
of  the  Romish  bishops  residing  in  these  United  States. 

I  have  also  considered  its  influence  in  the  period  of  its  greatest 
power  and  most  perfect  development,  and  also  from  that  day  to  this. 
Its  true  character  is  developed  in  its  history  and  in  the  word  of 
God. 

To  this  course  of  historical  investigation,  as  well  as  to  all  the 
other  evidence,  I  ask  your  careful  attention.  Remember  that  you 
are  judges  with  God  in  the  greatest  case  of  all  ages  —  a  case  radi- 
cally affecting  the  glory  and  the  reign  of  God  and  every  interest  of 
the  whole  human  family. 

May  the  supreme  Judge,  in  whose  court  you  are  jurors,  so 
instruct  you  that  you  shall  pronounce  a  righteous  judgment  accord- 
ing to  the  law  and  the  facts  of  the  case. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

CHAP.  I.  —  The  Romish  Corporation  against  our  Protestant  Fathers,      .  13 

CHAP.  II.  —  Illustrations  of  the  Spirit  and  Aims  of  Popery,    ...  16 

CHAP.  III.  —  The  Central  Power  of  Popery, 20 

CHAP.  IV.  —  The  Essence  of  Protestantism, 24 


PART    I. 

ROMANISM  A   FRAUDULENT  AND   PERSECUTING   CONSPIRACY. 

CHAP.  I.  —  Romanism  invades  the  Rights  of  Man  as  to  Truth,  Fidelity, 

Property,  and  Life, 30 

CHAP.  II.  —  Popish  Principles  of  Veracity  and  Fidelity,  ....  32 
CHAP.  III.  —  Popish  Professions  in  Great  Britain  and  America,      .        .  36 
CHAP.  IV.  —  What  ought  we  to  believe  ?     What  is  the  supreme  Tri- 
bunal ?     .- 42 

CHAP.  V.  —  Positions  to  be  proved, 47 

CHAP.  VI.  —  Testimony  adduced 50 

CHAP.  VII.  —  Appeal  for  Judgment  to  all  true  Americans,      ...  81 
CHAP.  VIII.  —  The  Gallican,  or  French,  Doctrine,   .        .        .        .        .88 

CHAP.  IX.  —  Evasion  of  Charles  Butler 92 

CHAP.  X.  —  Evasion  of  Bishops  Hughes  and  Kenrick,     ....  96 

CHAP."  XL  —  The  Jesuits  on  Lying  and  Slander, 110 

CHAP.  XII.  —  Cautions  to  Americans  in  View  of  modern  Romish  Exam- 
ples of  Lying  and  Perjury,              121 

(11) 


12  CONTENTS. 

PART    II. 

ROMANISM  THE  ENEMY  OF  MANKIND. 

CHAP  I.  —  The  Case  stated,  and  Principles  of  Judgment,        .        .        .  131 

CHAP.  II.  —  Popery  a  Religion,  a  trading  Corporation,  a  Government,   .  134 

CHAP.  III.  —  Operation  and  pernicious  Effects  of  the  System,         .        .  138 

CHAP.  IV.  —  The  Celibacy  of  the  Clergy,  and  the  Confessional,       .        .  148 

CHAP.  V.  —  Reasons  for  a  thorough  Consideration  of  this  Subject,  .        .  155 

CHAP.  VI.  —  The  Voice  of  History  and  Experience,         ....  161 

CHAP.  VII.  —  Bishop  Kenrick's  audacious  Defence,         ....  172 

CHAP.  VIII.  —  Testimony  of  Romish  Priests, 191 

CHAP.  IX.  —  The  Result.  —  Infamous  "Character  of   the  Romish  Cor- 
poration,            206 

PAKT    III. 

ROMANISM  AN   IMPOSITION  AND   A   FORGERY. 

CHAP.  I.  —  Presumptive  Evidence  of  the  Fact, 212 

CHAP.  II.  —  Argument  from  History 234 

CHAP.  III.  —  History  of  the  Formation  of  the  Romish  Corporation  by 

Fraud  and  Forgery, 239 

CHAP.  IV.  —  Nicholas  I.  and  the  Forgeries  and  Frauds  of  the  Dark 

Ages, 274 

CHAP.  V.  —  The  Rock  Peter  and  the  Frauds  of  Leo  the  Great,  .  .  306 
CHAP.  VI.  —  The  Plots  and  Frauds  of  Gregory  VII.,  the  patron  Saint 

of  the  Bishops  of  the  United  States.  —  The  Bishops'  Oath,  .  331 
CHAP.  VII.  —  Characteristics  and  Developments  of  Popery  during  the 

Era  of  Gregory  VIL, 342 

PAKT    IV. 

THE   JUDGMENT    OF    GOD   AND   THE   BURNING   OF   BABYLON. 

CHAI.  I.  —  Babylon  on  Fire, 365 

CHAP.  II.  —  The  Fire  of  God 371 

CHAP.  III.  —  Protestantism  defended, 391 

CHAP.  IV.  —  The  Treason  of  the  Romish  Bishops  in  America,        .       ,  399 

CHAP.  V.  — Appeal  for  the  Judgment  of  God, 408 

CHAP.  VI.  —  What  ought  to  be  done  ? 412 


THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 


INTRODUCTION. 
CHAPTER    I. 

THE  CASE  STATED  AND  THE  ISSUE  DEFINED. 

THE  Pilgrim  Fathers  of  New  England  and  the  other 
Protestant  founders  of  this  great  nation  came  to  this 
continent,  soon  after  the  reformation  had  shaken  the  Eu- 
ropean world,  to  lay  the  foundations  of  a  new  order  of 
things,  by  erecting  a  new  social  system  upon  the  great 
principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty. 

As  one  illustration  of  the  results  of  this  colonization, 
we  now  witness  in  New  England  a  state  of  society  which, 
with  all  its  defects,  has  never  been  exceeded,  and  rarely 
equalled,  on  earth.  Our  state  of  society,  too,  is  the  result 
of  the  principles  and  institutions  of  our  fathers.  It  was 
their  glory,  in  their  own  esteem,  that  they  had  receded  to 
the  uttermost  point  from  the  corruptions  and  pollutions 
of  Rome  in  doctrine,  organization,  and  morals.  Their 
2  (is) 


14          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

foundation  was  the  Bible,  and  the  Bible  alone  —  not  the 
Bible  neutralized  or  rendered  poisonous  by  the  traditions 
of  man ;  the  Bible  in  the  hands  of  the  churches  and  of 
the  people,  and  not  in  the  hands  of  a  hierarchy  falsely 
calling  herself  the  church.  Under  it  have  sprung  up  free 
governments  in  church  and  -state,  systems  of  education, 
purity  in  the  family  state,  regenerated  ministers  and 
churches,  benevolent  enterprise,  science,  literature,  and 
the  arts. 

Results  similar  to  these  are  also  extensively  witnessed 
throughout  our  land  ;  and  it  is  our  fixed  purpose,  by  the 
aid  of  God,  to  make  them  universal.  At  this  we  aim; 
because  it  is  our  firm  conviction  that  we,  as  a  Protestant 
nation,  have  received  our  principles  from  God,  and  that 
he  has  assigned  to  us  the  sublime  mission  and  the  glorious 
destiny  of  making  them  universal. 

But  lo,  whilst  we  are  obediently  moving  on  to  attain 
our  destiny,  an  assault  is  made  upon  us  by  a  system  unique 
and  peculiar,  and  assuming  the  style  and  title  of  the 
Church  of  Rome,  the  Mother  and  Mistress  of  all  churches. 

We  turn  to  listen  to  her  words.  They  are  bold  and 
lofty.  Laying  aside  all  ceremony,  she  at  once  denounces 
us  and  our  fathers  as  in  rebellion  against  her,  our  only 
lawful  and  religious  sovereign,  and  therefore  against 
Almighty  God  himself. 

We  stop  to  consider  more  particularly  the  system  which 
makes  such  charges  and  puts  forth  such  pretensions. 

We  find  it  to  be  a  system  nominally  Christian,  yet  not 
friendly  to  other  Christian  bodies,  but  excluding  and 
anathematizing  them  all.  It  is  confined  to  no  nation  or 
government,  but  exists  under  all.  Its  parts  in  various 
nations  are  not,  like  other  religious  bodies,  independent  of 
each  other,  but  are  all  organized  as  one  compact  system 
around  one  head.  That  head  is  a  temporal  ruler  in  a 


THE  CASE  STATED   AND   THE  ISSUE  DEFINED.  15 

territory  exclusively  his  own.  He  is  also  a  spiritual 
ruler,  and  to  some  extent  a  temporal  ruler,  over  his  sub- 
jects in  all  lands.  He  claims  supremacy  oyer  all  earthly 
governments  ;  and,  so  far  as  he  has  had  at  any  time  the 
ability,  has  exercised  this  supremacy,  and  at  all  times 
aims  to  secure  the  requisite  power. 

In  our  land  the  system  has  great  and  constantly  in- 
creasing numbers.  Seven  archbishops,  thirty-two  bishops, 
one  thousand  five  hundred  and  seventy-four  priests,  and  a 
population  of  three  millions  are  subjected  to  its  sway. 

It  has  exerted  great  power  in  politics.  Politicians 
have  courted  the  favor  of  those  who  sway  this  mass  of 
voters.  It  has  also  constantly  aimed,  through  pecuniary 
and  political  motives,  to  paralyze  and  control  the  Protes- 
tant political  and  secular  press. 

It  has  under  its  control  numerous  and  dangerous  or- 
ganized societies,  composed  of  unmarried  men  and  women 
withdrawn  from  domestic  life,  and  specially  sworn  to  ex- 
tend and  defend  the  authority  of  the  Pope  of  Rome,  the 
head  of  the  great  system. 

It  is  organizing  seductive  and  proselyting  systems  of 
education,  and  aims  by  means  of  them  to  corrupt  and  en- 
list in  their  vast  schemes  the  children  of  Protestant  par- 
ents. It  has  at  this  time  twenty  colleges,  with  two  thou- 
sand two  hundred  and  forty-seven  students ;  twenty-nine 
theological  seminaries,  with  upwards  of  four  hundred 
students  ;  and  one  hundred  and  twelve  female  academies. 

It  is  accumulating  property  and  aiming  to  concentrate 
it  in  the  hands  of  the  bishops — the  sworn  vassals  of  a  for- 
eign monarch.  It  meets  us  at  every  turn  in  this  and  in  all 
lands.  It  shows  its  true  spirit  as  fast  as  it  gains  power  ; 
and  it  significantly  threatens  us  with  future  retribution 
whenever  it  shall  gain  universal  sway. 


CHAPTER   II. 

• 

ILLUSTRATIONS  OF  THE  SPIRIT  AND  AIMS  OF  POPERY. 

WE  will  illustrate  these  statements  by  a  few  impressive 
facts.  It  has  ever  been  the  policy  of  the  Papists  to  charge 
on  Protestants  a  tendency  to  all  kinds  of  radical  and  dis- 
organizing errors,  and  to  assert  that  the  only  defence 
against  it  is  submission  to  the  Papacy.  "Whenever  such  ten- 
dencies appear  to  exist  in  fact,  the  Papists  are  emboldened 
to  endeavor  to  produce  a  reaction  towards  their  system. 
Accordingly,  when  signs  of  such  a  state  of  things  began  to 
appear  in  New  England,  they  put  forth  new  efforts  to 
make  proselytes  ;  nor  were  those  efforts  entirely  fruitless. 

In  particular,  one  well-known  personage,  of  New  Eng- 
land parentage  and  education,  Orestes  A.  Brownson,  who 
had  himself  neared  the  gulf  of  infidelity  and  atheism,  un- 
able to  extricate  himself  from  the  mazes  of  scepticism,  fled 
for  refuge  to  Rome,  and  now  pronounces  the  experiment 
of  our  fathers  a  failure,  and  calls  on  us  to  return  from  our 
revolt.  Thus,  in  this  centre  of  New  England,  this  bold 
proposal  is  made  by  a  descendant  of  the  Puritans  to  the 
American  mind.  Our  system  is  pronounced  a  failure. 
Romanism  is  offered  to  us  in  its  place  ;  yea,  urged  upon 
us  as  our  only  refuge  from  ruin. 

Listen  to  the  following  words,  in  which  he  discloses 
not  only  his  own  feelings,  but  also  the  purposes  of  the 
Papal  corporation:  — 

(16) 


SPIRIT  AND   AIMS   OF  POPERY.  17 

"  The  church  may  be  assailed,  will  be  assailed  :  but  we 
know  it  is  founded  on  a  rock ;  and  the  gates  of  hell  shall 
not  prevail  against  it.  It  is  now  firmly  established  in 
this  country  ;  and  persecution  will  but  cause  it  to  thrive. 
Our  countrymen  may  be  grieved  that  it  is  so  ;  but  it  is 
useless  for  them  to  kick  against  the  decrees  of  Almighty 
God.  They  have  had  an  open  field  and  fair  play  for 
Protestantism.  Here  Protestantism  has  had  free  scope, 
has  reigned  without  a  rival,  and  proved  what  she  could 
do,  and  that  her  best  is  evil ;  for  the  very  good  she  boasts 
is  not  hers.  A  new  day  is  dawning  on  this  chosen  land  ;  a 
new  chapter  is  about  to  open  in  our  history,  and  the  church 
to  assume  her  rightful  position  and  influence.  Ours  shall 
yet  become  consecrated  ground ;  and  here  the  kingdom 
of  God's  dear  Son  shall  be  established.  Our  hills  and 
valleys  shall  yet  echo  to  the  convent  bell.  No  matter 
who  writes,  who  declaims,  who  intrigues,  who  is  alarmed, 
or  what  leagues  are  formed  ;  this  is  to  be  a  Catholic  coun- 
try ;  and  from  Maine  to  Georgia,  from  the  broad  Atlantic 
to  the  broader  Pacific,  the  clean  sacrifice  is  to  be  offered 
daily  for  the  quick  and  the  dead." 

But  these  words  are  not  original  with  him ;  they  are 
but  an  echo  of  the  voice  of  the  church.  The  society  at 
Lyons  for  the  propagation  of  the  faith,  a  Papal  organiza- 
tion of  great  power,  to  which  I  shall  hereafter  recur 
again,  says  the  same.  Speaking  of  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus,  and  of  the  fact  that  France 
and  Spain  took  possession  for  the  church,  the  society 
says,  — 

"  At  a  late  hour  heresy  made  her  appearance,  and  led 
to  the  coasts  of  North  America  the  most  violent  of  her 
disciples  —  the  restless  Puritans.  Soon  other  sects  cast 
their  scum  on  the  same  shores,  and  Protestantism  gained 


18         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

sovereignty  in  the  thirteen  colonies  -which  were  destined 
to  become  the  United  States.  Yet  the  Catholic  church 
could  never  abandon  THE  INVADED  TERRITORY." 

After  unfolding  her  plans  and  her  vigorous  prosecution 
of  them,  she  says,  — 

"  In  view  of  such  beneficial  results,  we  may  well  believe 
that  the  creation  of  the  American  episcopate  will  rank 
as  one  of  the  most  important  events  in  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Its  efficacious  activity 
recalls  to  mind  something  of  those  labors  of  organi- 
zation by  which  the  illustrious  bishops  of  primitive  times, 
among  the  depraved  Romans,  the  Arians,  and  the  bar- 
barians, provided  for  the  future  welfare  of  modern 
nations." 

Nay,  Mr.  B.  openly  confesses  that  there  is  a  system  de- 
signed to  exterminate  Protestantism:  "Not  by  force,"  he 
says,  "  but  by  argument  and  conviction.  The  church,"  he 
says,  "  never  uses  force."  Just  as  true  as  this  has  been,  so 
true  will  it  be  when  they  gain  the  power.  We  see  the  parts, 
therefore,  of  a  universal  system  ;  and  they  agree  with  the 
declaration  of  the  Duke  of  Eichmond.  He,  as  is  well 
known,  declared  that  there  was  a  combination  of  the 
despots  of  the  old  world  to  destroy  our  institutions  in 
order  to  sustain  their  own.  This  and  other  statements 
of  a  similar  kind  will  be  fully  detailed  in  the  succeeding 
portions  of  this  work.  Let  no  man,  then,  call  it  illiberali- 
ty  or  persecution  if  we  subject  this  arrogant  and  in- 
vading system  to  a  thorough  scrutiny.  We  are  still  the 
majority.  We  have  liberty  and  a  free  press;  and  God 
has  raised  us  up,  given  us  the  power,  and  calls  us  to  the 
work.  Yet  I  desire  to  say,  in  passing,  that  my  confidence 
of  success  does  not  rest  on  man.  There  is  no  sufficient 
power  to  prevent  the  spread  of  that  system  but  God.  Its 


SPIRIT  AND  AIMS  OF   POPERY.  19 

past  sway  is  owing  to  its  accordance  with  human  depravi- 
ty ;  and  the  same  cause  will  give  it  power  in  time  to  come 
if  God  does  not  interpose.  But  his  glory  calls  for  its 
ruin.  He  is  strong  enough  to  judge  it ;  and  he  will. 
That  the  time  of  this  judgment  is  near,  gathering  signs 
foretell.  The  hosts  are  moving  to  the  field  of  Arma- 
geddon. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  CENTRAL  POWER  OF  POPERY. 

So  long  as  men  admit  the  being  of  a  God  and  believe 
in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  their  most  powerful  motives 
will  be  derived  from  their  hopes  and  fears  as  to  eternal 
life.  It  matters  not  whether  these  hopes  or  fears  are 
founded  on  truth  or  falsehood,  genuine  religion  or  super- 
stition ;  so  long  as  they  exist  they  will  sway  the  masses 
of  mankind  with  resistless  power.  The  sway  of  Popery 
over  the  popular  mind  is  derived  from  this  source.  It  all 
depends  upon  a  false  answer  to  the  question,  "  What  shall 
I  do  to  be  saved  ?  " 

The  sublimity  and  importance  of  the  ideas  called  up 
before  the  mind  by  this  brief  question  I  suppose  no  one 
will  deny.  It  calls  up  God  ;  a  spiritual  world  ;  a  moral 
government ;  a  law  and  its  penalty  ;  a  revolt ;  an  atone- 
ment ;  reconciliation  to  God,  resulting  in  heaven ;  eternal 
alienation,  resulting  in  hell.  But  what  has  it  to  do  with 
the  central  error  of  Romanism  and  the  main  issue  be- 
tween Romanists  and  Protestants  ?  Much  every  way,  as 
I  shall  soon  show. 

The  answer  to  this  question  given  by  the  great  re- 
formers is  plain  and  distinct.  It  unfolds  God,  the  correla- 
tion of  the  mind  to  him,  the  nature  of  his  law,  and  of  life 
in  him  by  love,  and  shows  that  this  perfects  the  mind  and 
conducts  it  to  its  true  end.  It  unfolds  sin  in  its  nature, 

(20) 


THE  CENTRAL  POWER  OF  POPERY.          21 

forms,  and  effects  upon  the  mind — its  guilt,  and  desert, 
and  eternal  consequences.  It  unfolds  the  divinity  and 
incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God  and  his  atonement,  and  the 
possibility  of  pardon  on  the  ground  of  repentance,  faith, 
and  a  holy  life.  And  then,  with  the  apostles,  it  says, 
"  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved." 
This  is  the  answer  of  the  whole  evangelical  Protestant 
world.  In  this  they  all  agree.  "With  them  the  church 
of  Rome  does  not  agree.  Teaching  a  hell,  she  admits  the 
need  of  the  question,  but  answers  it  falsely.  Her  answer 
is,  Believe  in  the  church  of  Rome,  and  in  Christ  as  the 
church  of  Rome  believes  in  him,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved  ; 
believe  not,  and  thou  shalt  be  damned. 

But  you  reply,  I  have  had  the  Bible  from  childhood  ;  I 
have  studied  it ;  I  have  been  aided  in  my  study  by  the 
instruction  of  holy  men  ;  I  think  I  know  what  sin  is,  and 
that  I  have  repented  of  it,  and  trusted  in  Christ,  and  am 
striving  to  cultivate  all  the  Christian  graces  and  to  lead 
a  holy  life  ;  and  through  the  mercy  of  God,  through  Christ, 
I  hope  for  heaven.  Are  not  my  hopes  well  founded  ?  But 
do  you  believe  in  the  church  of  Rome  ?  No  ;  I  believe  in 
the  Bible.  But  do  you  believe  in  the  Bible  in  her  sense 
and  according  to  her  interpretation  ?  In  some  things  I 
do,  and  in  some  I  do  not.  In  a  great  multitude  of  things  I 
regard  her  as  utterly  misinterpreting  and  radically  cor- 
rupting the  word  of  God ;  and,  on  the  whole,  I  regard  that 
church  as  the  man  of  sin  spoken  of  by  Paul  and  the  great 
harlot  spoken  of  by  John.  Then  of  course  you  cannot  be 
saved  ;  since  you  not  only  do  not  believe  in  the  church  of 
Rome,  but  blaspheme  her  —  the  bride,  the  spouse,  of 
Christ.  But  where  has  God  told  me  to  believe  in  the 
church  of  Rome  ?  My  Bible  says  nothing  about  it.  It 
says,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be 
saved."  And  Paul,  in  his  letter  to  the  church  of  Rome, 


22         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

says,  "  Whosoever  shall  call  on  the  name  of  the  Lord  shall 
be  saved ; "  but  not  a  syllable  about  believing  in  the  church 
of  Rome  any  where. 

Now,  what  has  the  church  of  Home  to  say  to"  all  this, 
think  you  ?    Why,  as  follows  :  — 

1.  You  cannot  tell  what  the  canon  of  the  Bible  is  ex- 
cept through  the  church  of  Rome. 

2.  After  the  canon  is  made  out,  you  cannot  so  tell  what 
the  Bible  means,  without  the  aid  of  the  church  of  Rome, 
that  it  is  possible  for  you  to  exercise  saving  faith. 

3.  The  Bible,  without  the  traditions  of  the  church  of 
Rome,  is  so  defective  and  imperfect  that  it  is  not  safe  to 
depend  upon  it. 

4.  There  is  only  one  thing  upon  which  you  can  depend 
safely;  and  that  is  the  church  of  Rome.     Through  her  you 
can  tell  what  the  canon  of  the  Bible  is  ;  through  her  you 
can  tell  what  it  means  ;  through  her  you  can  have  all  its 
deficiencies  supplied  ;  and  thus  through  her  you  can  trust 
in  Christ,  be  holy,  and  be  saved. 

But  what  is  this  church  of  Rome  ?  Does  it  mean  the 
whole  body  of  believers  under  the  pope  ?  No,  indeed  ; 
we  are  not  Congregationalists.  It  is  not  their  duty  to 
judge  or  teach ;  but  to  hear  their  superiors,  believe  and 
obey.  What,  then,  is  the  church  ?  If  you  would  know 
definitely,  then  hear.  It  is  the  body  of  bishops  in  .union 
with  the  pope,  their  head  ;  and  they  are  inspired,  not  as 
individuals,  but  in  their  corporate  capacity.  This  is  the 
church  that  we  mean.  It  is  the  ecclesia  docens  —  the  teach- 
ing church.  It  is  an  inspired,  infallible,  indefectible  body 
of  teachers.  These,  as  a  corporation,  are,  as  it  were,  an 
incarnation  of  God  —  the  body  of  Christ.  Through  them 
God  speaks  and  acts.  Through  them  he  interprets  the 
Bible  and  settles  all  questions  of  doctrine.  Through 
them  he  governs  the  church.  Through  no  other  body  of 


THE  CENTRAL  POWER  OF  POPERY.         23 

men  does  he  so  act  or  speak.  If  you  hear  them,  you  hear 
him  ;  if  you  reject  them,  you  reject  him.  They  occupy 
precisely  the  same  place  relatively  to  the  world  that  the 
apostles  did  of  old.  Indeed,  they  are  the  successors  of 
the  apostles,  and  inherit  all  their  prerogatives  and  powers ; 
and  as  a  rejection  of  the  apostles  would  have  been  fatal 
then,  so  is  a  rejection  of  this  inspired  and  infallible  body 
of  their  successors  now.  Therefore,  if  you  do  not  believe 
in  the  church  of  Rome,  you  cannot  believe  in  Christ  or  be 
saved.  Believe,  therefore,  in  the  church  of  Rome,  and 
through  her  in  Christ,  and  thou  shalt  be  saved,  is  still  the 
reply. 

We  have  thus  arrived  at  what  is,  beyond  all  doubt,  the 
central  power  of  the  Romish  system.  This  is  the  great 
citadel  of  spiritual  Babylon.  On  this  point  comes  up  the 
main,  the  dividing,  issue  between  Romanists  and  Prot- 
estants. The  demand  of  faith  in  the  Romish  corporation 
as  an  infallible  church,  as  essential  to  salvation,  is  the 
vital  power  of  the  greai  Romish  apostasy  ;  its  denial  is  the 
fundamental  position  of  Protestantism. 


CHAPTER  IY. 

THE   PRECEDING   STATEMENTS  CONFIRMED. 

THAT  the  rejection  of  the  pope  and  the  corporation  of 
bishops  is  the  essence  of  Protestantism  is  exceedingly 
manifest,  as  will  appear  from  the  following  among  other 
reasons  :  — 

1.  Though  there  are  numerous   other  errors  in  the 
system,  —  as  image  worship,  transubstantiation,  the  mass, 
purgatory,  &c.,  —  yet  any  one  of  them  can  be  removed,  yea, 
many  of  them,  and  yet  leave  the  mainspring  of  the  system 
in  powerful  operation  ;  but  take  this  corporation  away,  and 
the  system  dies.    As  an  ox  smitten  on  the  side  does  not 
die,  nor  if  you  cut  off  a  leg  or  a  horn  does  he  die,  but  if 
you  smite  him  on  his  forehead,  on  his  brain,  his  whole  system 
is  dissolved,  and  he  dies,  so  is  it  here.     This  is  the  forehead 
beneath  which  lies  the  brain  of  the  system  ;  smite  it,  and 
it  dies.     God  has  seven  hammers,  any  one  of  which  can 
smite  it  with  omnipotent  power  ;  how  much  more  all !    In 
the  proper  place  I  shall  produce  them.     My  object  now  is 
simply  to  bring  forward  the  system  and  show  where  to  smite. 

2.  Till  this  is  smitten  down,  it  is  a  wall  of  defence 
around  all  the  interior  absurdities  of  the  system.     In  vain 
do  you  object  against  them  ;  it  is  all  set  aside  as  mere  pri- 
vate judgment.     You  deem  them  false,  say  they  ;  but  what 
is  the  worth  of  your  individual  opinion?    The  church 
deems  them  true  ;  and  who  is  most  likely  to  be  right  ? 

(24) 


THE   PRECEDING   STATEMENTS    CONFIRMED.  25 

Has  she  not  God's  promise  "to  be  with  her  always  and  to 
guide  her  into  all  truth  ? 

3.  It  effects  a  ruinous  perversion  of  the  principle  of 
faith  —  one  of  the  most  important  and  powerful  of  the  soul, 
and  the  most  injurious  in  its  perversion.     Any  absurdity 
however  great,  once  taken  into  this  enclosure,  is  exempted 
from  the  scrutiny  of  reason,  and  belief  is  debased  to  re- 
ceive it. 

4.  It  makes  the   system  essentially,  logically,  and  of 
necessity,   intolerant    and    exterminating,   regarding    all 
other  systems  as  the  gospel  does  idolatry — i.  e.,  as  rebel- 
lion against  God.     Many  Protestants  do  not  seem  to  be 
aware  of  this,  and  think  that  Protestants  ought  to  regard 
Romanism  as  one  of  the  many  fraternal  Christian  sects. 
But  they  mistake  its  necessary  logical  relation  to  all  other 
bodies.     It  does  not  acknowledge  any  of  them  as  any  part 
of  the  church  of  Christ,  nor  as  Christians.     It  does  not 
ask  to  be  put  on  a  level  with  them.    It  has  no  part  or  lot 
with  them.     They  are  sons   of  Belial,   all  of  them  — 
enemies  of  God,  children  of  perdition,  on  the  road  to  hell ; 
and  its  only  duty  and  avowed  end  is  to  convert  or  extermi- 
nate them. 

Indeed,  it  denounces  them  all  as  pagans.  The  cele- 
brated Brownson,  speaking,  as  he  declares,  under  the 
sanction  of  the  American  Papal  bishops,  says,  (Quarterly 
Review,  January,  1854,  p.  96,)  "  Our  American  society  is 
pagan,  not  Christian."  Hence  he  affirms  that  the  Papists 
are  situated  as  were  the  first  Christians  under  pagan  Rome, 
and  that  they  are  an  insulated  system  in  which  are  all  the 
hopes  of  society. 

"Almost  every  where  the  faithful,  as  under  the  pagan 

emperors  of  Rome,  must  constitute  a  society  of  their  own, 

independent  of  the  pagan  society  in  the  midst  of  which 

they  live,  complete  in  itself,  and  adequate  to  all  social 

3 


26         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

wants  and  necessities.  This  Catholic  society  is  in  the  old 
world  the  remains  of  a  once  general  Catholic  society  ;  in 
our  country  it  is,  as  under  the  pagan  Caesars,  the  germ  or 
nucleus  of  a  new  Catholic  state.  All  the  hopes  of  the  old 
world  centre  in  these  Catholic  remnants  ;  all  the  hopes  of 
the  new  in  this  Catholic  germ.  It  is  this  Catholic  society, 
sustaining  itself  or  forming  itself  under  overshadowing 
heathenism,  that  we  must  consult  in  our  addresses  and  dis- 
cussions. To  save  the  non-Catholic  society  from  continued 
decline  and  corruption  is  as  hopeless  as  it  was  to  save  the 
Jewish  state  under  the  Roman  governors,  or  pagan  society 
under  Nero  or  Diocletian.  The  thing  is  out  of  the  ques- 
tion ;  because  modern  society,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Catholic,  has  in  itself  no  recuperative  energy,  no  germ  of 
life.  All  society  must  conform  to  the  principles  of  our  holy 
religion,  and  spring  from  Catholicity  as  its  root,  or  sooner 
or  later  lapse  into  barbarism.  The  living  germ  in  all 
modern  nations,  the  nucleus  of  all  future  living  society, 
is  in  the  Catholic  portion  of  the  population.  They  are  the 
salt  of  the  earth  ;  they  are  the  leaven  that  is  to  leaven 
the  whole  lump." —  Quarterly  Review,  pp.  97,  98. 

The  feelings  of  some  Romanists,  and  even  their  com- 
mon sense,  may  revolt  from  this  ;  nay,  in  view  of  the 
debased  Romanist  masses  among  us,  it  is  both  impudent 
and  ludicrous ;  but  it  is  the  stern,  inevitable,  logical 
result  of  the  system,  avowed  in  public  formulas,  fully 
brought  out  by  Mr.  B. 

" '  It  is  the  intention  of  the  pope  to  possess  this  coun- 
try.' Undoubtedly.  'In  this  intention  he  is  aided  by 
the  Jesuits  and  all  the  Catholic  prelates  and  priests.' 
Undoubtedly,  if  they  are  faithful  to  their  religion.  '  If 
the  Catholic  church  becomes  predominant  here,  Protes- 
tants will  all  be  exterminated.'  "We  hope  so,  if  extermi- 
nated as  Protestants  by  being  converted  to  the  Catholic 
faith." 


THE   PRECEDING  STATEMENTS  CONFIRMED.  27 

He  at  this  time  deems  it  politic  to  disclaim  in  behalf 
of  the  church  all  force  but  moral,  and  says  that  is  enough, 
and  also  concedes  equal  civil  rights.  His  subsequent 
doctrine  as  to  extermination  will  depend  upon  the  power 
of  the  church.  He  then  proceeds  :  — 

"  Save,  then,  in  the  discharge  of  our  civil  duties  and  in 
the  ordinary  business  of  life,  there  is  and  can  be  no  har- 
mony between  Catholics  and  Protestants.  The  two  par- 
ties stand  opposed  ;  separated,  not  by  a  mere  paper  wall, 
as  some  of  the  sects  are,  but  by  a  great  gulf.  The  peo- 
ple of  Christ  (i.  e.,  the  Romanists)  are  a  peculiar  people  ; 
they  stand  out  from  the  world,  distinct,  separate  ;  and 
must,  if  they  will  be  the  people  of  Christ.  They  can 
have  no  fellowship  with  Belial,  nor  live  in  peace  and  har- 
mony with  his  children,  (i.  e.,  the  Protestants.") 

From  such  views  he  anticipates  a  Protestant  reaction  ; 
but  he  treats  it  with  supreme  contempt.  He  says,  — 

"The  signs  of  the  times  seem  to  indicate  that  the  sev- 
eral tribes  of  Goths,  Vandals,  Huns,  and  other  barbarians 
are  forming  a  league  for  a  new  invasion  of  Rome.  "Well, 
be  it  so.  He  that  dwelleth  in  the  heavens  shall  laugh  at 
them,  and  the  Lord  shall  deride  them.  The  Episcopalians 
may  read  their  destiny  in  that  of  the  old  Donatists,  whom 
in  many  respects  they  resemble ;  and  all  the  Protestant 
sects  combined  are  not  so  formidable  to  the  church  as  were 
at  one  period  the  old  Arians.  The  church  triumphed  over 
the  Arians  ;  she  will  triumph  over  the  Protestants.  A 
union  whose  principle  is  hatred  will  not  long  subsist,  but 
will  soon  break  asunder.  Protestantism  is  doomed.  The 
devil  may  be  very  active  and  full  of  wrath  and  utter 
great  swelling  words  for  a  season,  because  he  knows 
that  his  time  is  short ;  but  Protestantism  must  go  the  way 
of  all  the  earth." 

This  seems  to  be  sufficiently  explicit.    Yet  doubtless 


28          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

there  will  be  still  some  charitable  souls  who  will  think 
it  illiberal  to  suspect  the  Romanists  of  ulterior  evil 
designs,  and  call  even  argument  in  self-defence  persecu- 
tion, and  wonder  why  we  will  persecute  a  sect  of  Chris- 
tians who  have  been  so  far  liberalized  by  modern  progress 
as  to  outgrow  their  ancient  bigotry  and  exclusiveness. 

5.  So  far  as  it  is  believed,  it  becomes  a  corporation  in- 
vested with  the  highest  powers  of  despotism  that  the  mind 
of  man  can  conceive.  It  has  the  monopoly,  not  of  bank- 
ing, or  corn,  or  wheat,  but  of  the  grace  of  God,  of  heaven 
and  hell  ;  and  such  a  body  will  bind  men  to  their  sway 
by  the  whole  weight  of  eternal  joys  and  eternal  woes. 
It  has  logically  carried  out  its  views  ;  and  kings  and  na- 
tions have  quailed  before  its  terrors.  Its  logical  tenden- 
cies are  still  the  same.  Nothing  but  the  counterpoise  of 
Protestantism  prevents  it.  On  this  it  gnashes  its  teeth, 
and  longs  to  exterminate  it.  To  be  sure,  they  tell  us  that 
it  will  be  safe  to  put  such  power  into  the  hands  of  such  a 
corporation ;  for  God  will  not  let  his  bride,  his  wife, 
abuse  it.  Gentle  souls!  As  if  the  experience  of  more 
than  a  thousand  years  had  thrown  no  light  on  that  point ! 

6.  It  urges,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  most  important 
and  momentous  claim  that  a  body  of  men  can  make.     It 
involves  not  merely  a  question  of  truth  or  falsehood,  as  in 
the  case  of  common  historical  facts.     It  admits  of  no  mid- 
dle ground  between  the  highest  and  most  momentous  truth 
and  a  falsehood  of  the  deepest  and  most  damning  guilt. 
God   either  sanctions  the  claim  with  his  whole  soul,  or 
with  his  whole  soul  he  abhors  it. 

7.  If  such  a  question  is  involved,  it  can  be  settled. 
There  must   be   truth   on   such   a    point.     Interest  and 
organic  power  may  resist ;   but   God  is   almighty ;   and 
he  can  so  wield  truth  that  they  will  give  way. 

8.  It  is  the  great  question  of  the  age.    For  three  hundred 


THE   PRECEDING   STATEMENTS    CONFIRMED.  29 

years  Christendom  has  been  divided  into  two  contending 
camps.  Things  cannot  remain  so  :  there  must  be  a  de- 
cision ;  there  will  be.  The  systems  are  diametrically  op- 
posed :  one  must  and  will  exterminate  the  other.  But  it 
will  not  be  without  a  moral  conflict  unknown  before  — 
the  battle  of  the  great  day  of  God  Almighty. 

From  this  brief  view  of  the  state  of  the  case  one  thinp- 
is  clear  —  that  it  is  a  system  that  ought,  especially  at  this 
time,  to  be  thoroughly  understood ;  not  misrepresented, 
not  dealt  with  on  grounds  of  prejudice,  but  studied, 
analyzed,  understood  in  the  light  of  history,  philosophy, 
and  Scripture. 

We  ought  not  to  be  simple,  credulous,  and  the  dupes  of 
craft  and  delusion.  The  main  stress  of  the  conflict  will 
be  upon  such  points  as  these  :  Is  there  evidence  in  the 
nature  of  things,  or  in  the  word  or  in  the  providence  of 
God,  as  developed  in  history,  that  the  claims  of  this  cor- 
poration are  well  founded  ?  Or  do  they  prove  them  to  be 
false,  impious,  and  destructive  ? 

In  reply  to  these  inquiries,  I  shall  undertake  to  show 
that,  so  far  is  the  Romish  corporation  from  being  an 
ordinance  of  God,  it  is  rather  a  fraudulent  conspiracy 
against  the  interests  of  God  and  humanity  ;  that  it  is  so 
far  from  having  its  basis  in  Scripture  and  reason  that  it 
is  rather  an  imposture  and  a  forgery  ;  that  it  is  so  far 
from  being  God's  messenger  of  blessings  to  men  that  it 
is  rather  the  enemy  of  mankind  and  hostile  to  the  best 
interests  of  society ;  and  that  Protestantism,  so  far  from 
deserving  the  anathemas  and  curses  heaped  upon  it  by 
that  proud  and  aspiring  corporation,  is  founded  in  truth, 
is  honorable  to  God,  and  is  the  only  sure  defence  of  our 
country  and  of  mankind. 
3* 


PAET     I. 


ROMANISM  A  FRAUDULENT  AND  PERSECUTING 
CONSPIRACY. 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE  BIGHTS  OF  HEX  AS  TO  TRUTH  AND  FIDELITY 
INVADED  BY  ROMANISM. 


THE  nature  of  man  as  a  social  being  is  such  that  his 
fundamental  necessity  is  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  He  is 
called  on  to  act  in  a  great  system  with  man  and  with 
God.  How,  then,  can  he  act  aright  unless  he  knows  what 
that  system  is  and  what  are  his  relations  to  it?  How  can 
man  act  safely  and  confidently  in  his  intercourse  with  man 
unless  he  knows  the  real  state  and  relations  of  the  things 
and  events  around  him?  Every  man,  therefore,  has  an 
indefeasible  claim  on  his  fellow-man  to  know  from  him 
the  truth.  To  establish  and  justify  the  utterance  of  false- 
hood, is  to  strike  a  blow  at  the  very  basis  of  the  social 
system. 

If,  then,  all  men  have  a  right  to  know  the  truth  as  to 
God  and  man,  no  man  or  body  of  men  has  a  right  to 

(30) 


THE  EIGHTS  OP   MEN   INVADED   BY  ROMANISM.  31 

delude  them,  even  under  the  pretence  of  promoting  their 
good,  or  for  the  sake  of  any  alleged  general  interest. 

All  men  have  a  right  also  to  truth  and  fidelity  as  to 
promises  and  contracts. 

They  have  no  less  a  right  to  defence  in  a  free  use  of 
their  powers  in  the  study  of  God  and  his  laws  and  works 
and  truth  in  general. 

All  these  rights  the  Romish  corporation  invades.  In 
fact,  it  is  a  conspiracy  to  defraud  men  of  all  their  rights, 
and  to  disfranchise  and  extirpate  all  who  refuse  to  submit 
to  its  claims. 

They  take  the  ground  that  no  man  has  a  right  to  know 
the  truth  from  them  in  any  case  where  they  regard  it  as 
inconsistent  with  their  own  interests. 

That  no  promises  or  oaths  are  binding-  to  those  who 
oppose  their  interests  and  renounce  their  authority  ;  and 
that  all  the  civil  and  political  rights  of  those  who  thus 
oppose  their  interests  are  forfeited,  as  well  as  their  prop- 
erty and  lives. 

A  corporation  which  takes  this  ground  is,  in  the  strictest 
and  most  absolute  sense,  a  fraudulent  conspiracy  against 
the  interests  and  the  rights  of  mankind. 

In  discussing  these  allegations,  we  should  not  deem  it 
sufficient  to  look  at  the  professions  made  by  the  advocates 
of  the  corporation  when  weak  and  in  the  minority,  but 
should  ask,  What  are  the  principles  of  the  corporation 
itself?  What  has  it  always  avowed  and  done  whenever 
no  external  power  has  prevented  its  full  development? 
These  inquiries  shall  be  answered  by  an  appeal  to  history. 

Xo  system  has  a  history  more  full  and  definite.  The 
tendencies  which  we  shall  allege  have  imbodied  them- 
selves in  facts  ;  indeed,  its  history  is  one  great  tragedy. 
It  is  like  the  prophet's  roll  —  written,  within  and  without, 
with  mourning,  lamentation,  and  woe. 


CHAPTER-    II. 


POPISH  PRINCIPLES  OF  VERACITY  AND  FIDELITY 

No  man  can  understand  the  Papal  church  until  he  has 
thoroughly  learned  that  it  is  a  corporation  which,  on  fixed 
principle,  authorizes  the  practice  of  perfidy  in  its  own  de- 
fence. It  is  no  less  certain  that  no  man  is  qualified  to 
deal  with  the  system  and  its  defenders  until  their  use  of 
falsehood  is  perfectly  understood. 

There  is  among  Protestants  a  tacit  understanding  that 
a  solemn  assertion  of  falsehood  before  God  is  wrong ; 
and  when  ministers,  bishops,  and  universities  swear  to  the 
truth  of  certain  assertions,  it  seems  dishonorable  not  to 
believe  them. 

But  he  who  does  believe  them  in  any  case  affecting  the 
interests  of  their  religion  is  simple.  In  precisely  such 
circumstances,  their  most  eminent  popes  and  prelates  have 
not  hesitated  to  equivocate,  deceive,  and  even  directly  and 
unequivocally  to  lie.  Yea,  their  principles  offer  rewards 
to  such  lying,  as  eminently  meritorious  in  the  sight  of  God. 

It  is,  therefore,  no  want  of  charity,  it  is  no  want  of 
magnanimity,  to  deny  any  credence  to  any  of  the  advocates 
of  this  system  on  their  mere  word  and  in  cases  affecting 
its  interests.  It  would  be,  on  the  other  hand,  inexcusable 
weakness  and  simplicity  to  believe  them.  In  addition  to 
the  effects  of  the  perverted  teaching  of  this  corporation, 
there  is  also  the  influence  of  the  fact,  which  I  shall  soon 

(32) 


POPISH  PRINCIPLES   OP  VERACITY  AND  FIDELITY.        33 

develop,  that  it  is  so  founded  on  fraud  and  forgeries  that 
it  cannot  bear  the  scrutiny  of  an  impartial  historian. 
But  it  is  obvious,  that  if  a  true  view  of  history  is  ruinous 
to  powerful  existing  organizations,  even  if  they  were  not 
educated  to  lie,  great  would  be  the  temptation  to  color, 
distort,  or  deny  the  real  facts  of  history.  But  if  any  cor- 
poration is  from  education  prone  to  falsify  history,  and  is 
under  the  influence  of  base  examples  and  principles,  how 
much  more  sure  the  results  !  If,  therefore,  of  the  Romish 
corporation  all  these  things  are  true ;  if  a  true  view  of 
history  will  destroy  them  ;  if  they  are  trained  to  the  use  of 
forgery  and  fraud,  and  are  under  the  influence  of  base 
principles  and  precedents,  —  we  need  to  be  fully  aware  of 
these  facts.  For  this  purpose  I  propose  to  state  at  some 
length  what  are  the  genuine  principles  and  what  has-been 
the  practice  of  the  Romish  corporation  as  it  regards  lying 
and  perjury  for  the  good  of  the  church. 

I  have  no  intention,  in  this  inquiry,  to  bring  any  sweep- 
ing charges  against  every  individual  who  is  found  in  the 
Catholic  laity.  I  do  not  confound  them  with  the  corpora- 
tion by  which  they  are  ruled,  and  of  which  few  of  them 
study  or  understand  the  real  principles.  To  a  great  ex- 
tent, they  are  more  deceived  than  deceiving.  Nor  do  I 
intend  to  overlook  the  fact  that  there  are,  in  the  great 
body  of  Romish  ecclesiastics  and  historians,  a  few  writers 
of  very  honorable  principles  and  practice.  Thus  I  do  not 
intend  to  include  in  any  one  general  statement  persons 
whose  principles  and  practice  are  so  unlike  as  those  of 
Pascal,  Fenelon,  Dupin,  Sarpi,  De  Thou,  Daunou,  on  the 
one  hand,  and  Escobar,  Molina,  Baronius,  Bellarmine,  De 
Maistre,  &c.,  on  the  other.  In  a  body  so  divided  into 
parties  and  factions  as  the  church  of  Rome  has  always 
been,  and  in  which  characters  and  principles  are  so  various, 
all  indiscriminating  charges  on  masses  are  to  be  utterly 


34  THE  PAPAL   CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

reprobated.  Nor  do  I  intend  to  hurt  the  feelings  of  any 
by  charging  on  them  the  belief  of  principles  which  they 
disavow  in  theory  and  repudiate  in  practice. 

But,  as  a  great  conflict  is  before  us,  I  do  propose  to  in- 
quire, What  ought  a  wise,  honorable,  just,  and  benevolent 
Protestant  to  think  of  the  principles  and  influence  of  the 
great  Romish  system  that  opposes  him,  as  it  regards  speak- 
ing the  truth,  and  also  as  to  the  observance  of  truth, 
as  it  regards  history,  reputation,  contracts,  covenants,  and 
oaths  ?  This  is  essential,  — 

1.  As  a  safeguard  against  the  abuse  of  that  benevolent 
and  honorable  simplicity  of  unsuspecting  minds  on  which 
unprincipled  deceivers  are  ready  at  all  times  to  practice. 
If  we  are  to  deal  with  a  society  who  have  reduced  the  art 
of  lying  or  equivocation   to  system,  we  ought    to  know 
them,  and  not  be  overreached  by  them. 

2.  As  essential  in  order  to  aid  in  forming  a  judgment  as 
to  the  real  facts  of  history.     If  a  whole  body  is  tempted, 
by  fear  of  ruin,  to  misrepresent  facts,  we  ought  ever  to 
bear  it  in  mind. 

3.  As  having  a  direct  bearing  on  the  logic  of  the  main 
question  —  the  existence  of  an  infallible  corporation  ;  for, 
if  in  the  middle  ages  the  Romish  corporation  decreed  what 
all  concede  to  be  false   and  immoral,  their   claims  are 
destroyed. 

I  come,  therefore,  directly  to  the  question,  How  shall 
these  principles  be  ascertained  ?  What  is  the  highest  and 
most  decisive  evidence  ?  And  I  reply,  Not  the  testimony  of 
British  laymen  or  ecclesiastics  in  the  Papal  church,  who 
had  in  this  age  of  light  a  high  interest  to  deny  certain 
allegations  as  to  the  doctrines  of  that  church,  in  order  to 
gain  political  privileges,  whilst  still  they  had  no  power  to 
settle  points  of  faith  ;  nor  the  testimony  of  foreign  uni- 
versities, who  are  equally  devoid  of  power  to  settle  points 
of  faith. 


POPISH  PRINCIPLES   OP  VERACITY  AND  FIDELITY.        35 

I  make  these  remarks  in  order  to  introduce  the  ex- 
perience of  Great  Britain  upon  the  point  in  question. 
This  will  open  a  most  instructive  chapter  of  history,  which 
the  people  of  this  nation  would  do  well  to  study.  Ques- 
tions are  at  issue  in  this  country  as  to  the  relations  of  the 
Papacy  to  all  civil  governments  which  are  of  fundamental 
moment.  They  will  be  met  with  the  whole  energy  of  the 
Papal  corporation.  We  need  fully  to  understand  the 
ground  on  which  we  stand.  They  will  affect  also  every 
historical  or  religious  question  that  may  come  up  in  deal- 
ing with  that  corporation. 


CHAPTER    III. 

PAPAL  PROFESSIONS  IN   GREAT   BRITAIN  AND  AMERICA. 

DURING  the  long  controversy  on  Catholic  emancipation, 
incessant  efforts  were  made  by  Charles  Butler,  a  learned 
Popish  lawyer,  and  by  others,  to  convince  the  British  public 
that  it  was  safe  to  restore  to  British  Romanists  full  politi- 
cal powers  and  privileges,  on  the  ground  that  the  Romish 
system  did  not  justify  a  violation  of  faith  or  of  good 
morals.  To  obtain  satisfaction  for  the  British  government, 
appeal  was  made  to  individual  divines  and  to  certain  foreign 
universities  to  ascertain  whether  the  real  principles  of  the 
Papacy  justified  the  pope  in  deposing  heretical  monarchs 
and  absolving  their  subjects  from  the  oath  of  allegiance, 
and,  in  general,  the  violation  of  faith  with  heretics. 

The  universities  addressed  were  those  of  Louvain, 
Douay,  and  Paris,  in  France,  and  Alcala,  Valladolid, 
and  Salamanca,  in  "Spain.  The  faculties  of  all  these  uni- 
versities unanimously  declared  that  the  principles  of  the 
Romish  system  did  not  justify  any  of  these  things.  They 
were  even,  in  the  words  of  the  University  of  Louvain, 
"  struck  with  astonishment  that  such  questions  should,  at 
the  end  of  this  eighteenth  century,  be  proposed  to  any 
learned  body  by  inhabitants  of  a  kingdom  that  glories  in  the 
talent  and  discernment  of  its  natives."  The  University 
of  Alcala  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that  those  who  imputed 
to  the  Romish  church  such  doctrines  were  instigated  by 

(36) 


PAPAL  PROFESSIONS  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  AMERICA.      37 

the  devil,  even  as  of  old  the  Jews  were  instigated  by  him 
to  slander  Christ. 

The  reply  of  the  University  of  Douay,  as  the  shortest^ 
we  will  quote  from  Butler's  Historical  Memoirs,  vol.  i., 
pp.  445-448. 


Extracted  from  the  Register  of  the  Sacred  Faculty  of  Divinity 
of  the  University  of  Douay. 

January  5,  1789. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  faculty  of  divinity  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Douay,  the  dean  informed  them  that  the  Catholics 
of  England  were  desirous  of  the  opinion  of  the  faculty 
upon  three  questions,  the  tenor  of  which  was  as  follows :  — 

1.  Has  the  pope,  by  virtue  of  any  authority,  power,  or 
jurisdiction  derived  to  him  from  God,  or  have  the  cardi- 
nals, or  even  the  church  itself,  any  civil  authority,  civil 
power,  or  civil  jurisdiction  whatsoever  in  the   kingdom 
of  England  ? 

2.  Can  the  pope,  the  cardinals,  or  the  church  herself 
absolve  or  free  the  subjects  of  the  King  of  England  from 
their  oath  of  allegiance  ? 

3.  Is  there  any  principle  of  the  Catholic  faith  by  which 
Catholics  are  justified  in  not  keeping  faith  with  heretics 
or  other  persons  who  differ  from  them  in  religious  opinions  ? 

These  questions  first  having  been  privately  considered 
by  each  professor  of  divinity,  and  afterwards  having  been 
attentively  discussed  by  the  public  meeting, — 

To  the  first  and  second  of  them  the  sacred  faculty 
answers,  That  no  power  whatsoever,  in  civil  or  temporal 
concerns,  was  given  by  the  Almighty,  either  to  the  pope, 
the  cardinals,  or  the  church  herself ;  and  consequently 
that  kings  and  sovereigns  are  not,  in  temporal  concerns, 
subject  by  the  ordination  of  God  to  any  ecclesiastical 
power  whatsoever;  neither  can  their  subjects,  by  any 
authority  granted  to  the  pope  or  the  church  from  above, 
be  freed  from  their  obedience  or  absolved  from  their  oath 
of  allegiance. 

This  is  the  doctrine  which  the  doctors  and  professors  of 
4 


38         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

divinity  hold  and  teach  in  our  schools;  and  this  all  the 
candidates  for  degrees  in  divinity  maintain  in  their  public 
theses. 

To  the  third  question  the  sacred  faculty  answers,  That 
there  is  no  principle  of  the  Catholic  faith  by  which  Catho- 
lics are  justified  in  not  keeping  faith  with  heretics  who 
differ  from  them  in  religious  opinions.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  the  unanimous  doctrine  of  Catholics,  that  the  respect 
due  to  the  name  of  God,  so  called  to  witness,  requires 
that  the  oath  be  inviolably  kept  to  -whomsoever  it  is 
pledged,  whether  Catholic,  heretic,  or  infidel. 

Done  on  the  day  and  in  the  year  above  stated,  by  order 
of  the  illustrious  lords  of  the  holy  faculty. 

(Signed)        BACQ,  beadle  and  secretary. 

It  agrees  with  the  original.     Witness  my  hand. 

BACQ,  beadle  and  secretary. 

"We,  the  sheriffs  of  the  town  of  Douay  and  justices  of 
the  police,  certify,  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  the 
Sieur  Bacq,  who  has  signed  the  above  deliberation,  is 
beadle,  as  well  as  secretary  and  registrar,  to  the  faculty 
of  holy  theology  in  the  university  of  this  town,  and  that 
to  all  acts  so  signed  by  him  credence  is  to  be  given  in  and 
out  of  court.  In  witness  whereof,  we  have  caused  these 
presents  to  be  signed  by  one  of  the  registrars  of  the  said 
town,  and  the  seal  of  the  said  town,  where  neither  stamped 
paper  nor  a  small  seal  are  in  use,  to  be  fixed  to  them. 
The  12th  January,  1789. 

HERBAUT,  by  order. 


The  Answer  of  the   Faculty  of  the  Canon   and  Civil  Law 
in  t/ie  same  University  of  Douay. 

Having  seen  and  attentively  considered  the  above 
•written  questions  and  the  answers  of  the  sacred  faculty 
of  divinity  to  them,  the  faculties  both  of  the  canon  law 
and  of  the  civil  law  declare  that  they,  without  hesitation 
or  doubt,  concur  in  the  aforesaid  answers  of  the  5th 
instant,  and  that  they  have  always  firmly  believed  and 


PAPAL  PROFESSIONS  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  AMERICA.      39 

uniformly  taught  that  neither  the  cardinals,  nor  the  pope, 
nor  even  the  church  herself  have  any  jurisdiction  or 
power,  by  divine  right,  over  the  temporals  of  kings, 
sovereigns,  or  their  subjects  ;  and  consequently  that  kings 
and  sovereigns  are  not,  in  temporal  concerns,  subject  by 
the  ordination  of  God  to  any  ecclesiastical  power  whatso- 
ever ;  nor  can  their  subjects,  by  any  authority  granted  to 
the  pope  or  the  church  from  above,  be  freed  from  their 
obedience  or  absolved  from  their  oaths  of  allegiance. 

Further  :  the  doctors  of  these  faculties  declare,  That  an 
oath  implies  an  obligation  of  natural  and  divine  right,  by 
which  the  party  is  bound  to  perform  the  promise  contained 
in  his  oath  to  whomsoever  that  promise  be  made,  whether 
he  be  a  Catholic,  a  heretic,  or  an  infidel  ;  and  that  no 
person,  through  pretext  of  heresy  or  infidelity  in  the  party 
to  whom  the  promise  is  given,  can  be  released  from  his 
obligation.  The  Catholic  religion,  far  from  admitting  any 
principle  by  which  oaths  can  be  dispensed  with,  holds  such 
peijuries  in  abhorrence. 

In  testimony  of  which  we  have  ordered  our  scribe  to 
sign  this  instrument.  Done  at  Douay  this  9th  of  January, 
1789. 

SIMON,  beadle  and  secretary. 

We,  the  sheriffs  of  the  town  of  Douay  and  justices  of 
the  police,  certify  to  all  whom  it  may  concern,  that  the 
Sieur  Simon,  who  has  signed  the  above  deliberation,  is 
beadle,  as  well  as  secretary  and  registrar,  to  the  faculty 
of  civil  and  canon  law  in  the  university  of  this  town,  and 
that  to  all  acts  so  signed  by  him  credence  is  to  be  given  in 
and  out  of  court.  In  witness  whereof,  we  have  caused  these 
presents  to  be  signed  by  one  of  the  registrars  of  the  said 
town,  and  the  seal  of  the  said  town,  where  neither  stamped 
paper  uor  a  small  seal  are  in  use,  to  be  affixed  to  them. 
The  12th  January,  1789. 

HERABUT,  by  order. 

The  effect  of  such  assertions  on  Protestants,  ignorant 
of  the  mazes  of  Romanism,  would  of  necessity  be  great. 
Nor  do  we  wonder  at  it.  Men  of  such  eminence  and 


40         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

learning,  they  would  naturally  conclude,  know  what  the 
Romish  system  is  ;  and  we  ought  not  to  distrust  such  confi- 
dent assertions. 

The  Romish  committee  of  Ireland  in  1792,  in  the  name 
of  all  their  Popish  countrymen,  and  the  Irish  bishops, 
Murray,  Doyle,  and  Kelley,  in  their  examination  before 
the  British  Commons  in  1826,  made  similar  protestations 
against  the  doctrines  charged. 

The  past  history  of  Great  Britain  ought  to  have  taught 
them  caution  ;  but  they  believed,  and,  to  a  certain  extent, 
have  acted  accordingly. 


PAPAL  PROFESSIONS  IN  AMERICA. 

Even  in  Boston,  at  a  time  when  the  public  mind  began 
to  be  aroused  in  view  of  the  dangers  impending  from  th« 
developments  of  the  Papal  conspiracy  against  these  United 
States,  these  same  responses  of  foreign  universities  were 
referred  to  as  evincing  that  there  was  no  ground  for  dis« 
trust  and  alarm  by  those  who,  for  various  reasons,  were 
disposed  to  look  on  the  best  side  of  Romanism.  The 
reply  of  the  University  of  Douay,  which  is  before  them, 
will  enable  iny  readers  to  judge  of  the  tenor  of  all  the 
others ;  and  certainly  its  denial  of  the  doctrines  imputed 
is  sufficiently  explicit.  If  it  were  safe  to  regard  such 
statements  at  all  as  having  authority,  it  would  probably 
increase  the  force  of  this  particular  document  that  we 
have  in  it  the  statement  of  the  faculty  of  the  canon  and 
civil  law,  which  was  not  the  case  in  the  other  univer- 
sities. 

Mr.  Brownson,  too,  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic,  has  un- 
dertaken to  speak  in  the  name  of  his  church,  and  to  de- 
nounce in  no  measured  terms  all  who,  with  Professor  Park, 


PAPAL  PROFESSIONS  IN  GEEAT  BRITAIN  AND  AMERICA.      41 

have  dared  to  impute  to  her  the  maxim  that  no  faith  is  to 
be  kept  with  heretics.     Hear  his  indignant  disclaimer  :  — 

" '  No  faith  to  be  kept  with  heretics.'  Where  did  the 
professor  learn  that  this  is  a  maxim  of  Catholicity  ?  It 
is  false.  Catholicity  knows  no  such  maxim  ;  and  Catholic 
history  authorizes  no  inference  that  she  practically  adopts 
or  in  the  least  conceivable  manner  countenances  it.  In- 
dividuals of  bad  faith  may  be  found,  no  doubt,  even  among 
Catholics ;  but  that  Catholicity  or  Catholic  doctors  any 
where  countenance  any  thing  of  the  sort,  is  a  malignant 
falsehood.  We  are  taught  and  required  to  keep  our  faith 
with  all  men  ;  and  faith  plighted  to  a  heretic  can  no  more 
be  broken  without  sin  than  faith  plighted  to  a  true  be- 
liever. We  would  that  Protestants  would  observe  a  tithe 
of  the  good  faith  towards  Catholics  that  Catholics  do  to- 
wards Protestants  ;  and,  when  they  shall  do  so,  we  give 
them  leave  to  abuse  our  morals  to  their  full  satisfaction." 

Bishop  Kenrick,  of  Philadelphia,  has  also  given  assur- 
ances of  a  similar  import.  He  was  induced  to  do  it  in 
order  to  produce  the  belief  that  no  danger  is  to  be  appre- 
hended to  the  political  institutions  of  this  country  from 
the  extensive  spread  of  the  Romish  system.  Romanists, 
he  assures  us,  whether  ecclesiastics  or  laymen,  are  as  good 
citizens  as  any  Protestants  whatever,  and  do  not  hold  the 
odious  dogmas  as  to  the  violation  of  faith  to  heretics  that 
are  imputed  to  them.  See  his  treatise  on  the  Primacy, 
pp.  469-471. 

4* 


CHAPTER    IY. 

WHAT  OUGHT  WE  TO  BELIEVE? 

WHY  ought  we  not  to  believe  such  statements  ?  Can 
we  suppose  that  such  men  are  mistaken,  or  that  they  will 
wilfully  falsify  ? 

Without  answering  the  question  as  to  wilful  falsification, 
I  reply,  all  such  statements  are  of  no  force,  because  they 
produce  no  evidence  from  those  whose  prerogative  it  is  to 
decide  what  is,  and  what  is  not,  a  part  of  the  Romish  faith. 
That  there  is  such  a  body,  they  know  as  well  as  we.  Why, 
then,  instead  of  giving  us  their  own  assertions,  do  they 
not  give  us  the  words  of  that  supreme  authority  ? 

They  know,  as  well  as  we,  that  no  bishop,  and  no  fac- 
ulty of  any  university,  can  settle  a  principle  of  the  Romish 
faith.  The  fundamental  principles  of  the  system  forbid 
it.  They  know,  too,  that  all  such  statements  are  worth  no 
more  than  so  much  waste  paper. 

These  universities,  as  well  as  Charles  Butler,  the  histo- 
rian and  leader  of  the  Romish  party  in  England,  and  the 
Romish  laity,  followed  the  principles  of  the  Gallican  or 
cisalpine  divines,  at  the  head  of  whom  was  Bossuet,  who 
wrote  under  the  influence  of  the  great  monarch  of  France. 
But  neither  the  Pope  of  Rome  nor  a  general  council  ever 
sanctioned  the  views  of  these  divines.  Of  what  use,  then, 
is  it,  in  such  a  case,  to  appeal  to  the  opinions  of  such  au- 
thorities ? 

(42) 


WHAT  OUGHT  WE  TO   BELIEVE?  43 

Nor  is  any  more  weight  due  to  the  American  protesta- 
tions, especially  to  the  statements  of  Mr.  Brownson.  "We 
may  well  ask  what  is  his  authority,  that  he  should  under- 
take to  settle  a  question  like  this?  He  is  not  even  an 
ecclesiastic  ;  he  is  a  mere  layman ;  and  he  knows,  as  well  as 
any  one  else,  that  on  a  point  like  this  his  assertions  have  no 
more  weight  than  the  light  dust  of  the  balance. 


WHAT  IS  THE  SUPREME  TRIBUNAL? 

What,  then,  is  binding  on  all  Romanists  as  an  article  of 
faith?  "What  is  the  highest  authority  in  such  a  case? 
Whose  decision  is  final  and  supreme?  I  answer,  that 
which  is  binding  according  to  the  views  of  all ;  that  which 
is  the  highest  evidence  is  the  decision  of  a  general  coun- 
cil, sanctioned  by  the  pope,  or  a  decision  of  the  pope, 
ex  cathedra,  acquiesced  in  by  the  bishops. 

That  this  is  the  true  view  of  the  case,  Mr.  Brownson 
will  not  pretend  to  deny.  He  has  distinctly  affirmed  it. 
The  statement  of  Peter.  Dens  is  perfectly  coincident. 

"To  whom  does  the  authority  of  judgment  in  contro- 
versies respecting  the  faith  belong?" 

"  Ans.  To  the  superiors  of  the  church  :  namely,  to  the 
bishops,  and  above  all  to  the  supreme  pontiff." 

"  Does  this  judgment  in  matters  of  faith  not  appertain 
to  theological  doctors  or  other  ecclesiastics  ?  " 

"  Ans.  No  ;  and  hence,  in  general  councils,  they  have 
not  a  decisive  vote  ;  but  they  are  admitted  to  them  only 
for  the  examination  of  subjects  and  for  consultation  ; 
much  less,  therefore,  are  laymen  judges  in  matters  of 
faith." 

He  also  says  of  the  bishops  not  assembled  in  council, 
that,  if  they  coincide  with  a  decision  of  a  pope,  it  is  of 
equal  authority  as  if  they  were  in  council ;  for  "  the 


44          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

church  dispersed  is  equally  infallible  as  if  assembled  in 
general  council,  and  is  the  same  tribunal." 

Nor  is  it  necessary  that  all  the  bishops  should  be  unan- 
imous ;  "  but  a  moral  uniformity  of  the  bishops  is  sufficient, 
or  the  greater  part  of  them  agreeing  with  their  head,  the 
supreme  pontiff."  —  Nos.  80,  81. 

"We  demand,  therefore,  not  the  protestation  of  Mr. 
Brownson,  nor  of  the  Universities  of  Paris,  Louvain,  Dou- 
ay,  Alcala,  and  Salamanca,  nor  of  the  Romanist  prelates, 
priests,  and  laity  of  Great  Britain  made  after  the  reforma- 
tion had  shown  so  clearly  the  horrors  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Roman  corporation  that  they  were  compelled  to  renounce 
them  to  escape  the  detestation  of  outraged  humanity,  and 
made  to  gain  political  privileges  of  which  the  genuine 
doctrines  of  that  corporation  rendered  them  unworthy  ; 
we  demand  the  decision  of  that  corporation  to  whom 
alone,  on  Romish  principles,  it  belongs  to  settle  questions 
of  truth  and  duty  for  the  Romish  world.  And  I  am  con- 
strained to  ask,  Why  did  not  Mr.  Pitt  propose  directly  his 
queries  to  the  court  of  Rome,  and  request  a  bull,  to  be 
acquiesced  in  by  all  bishops,  in  which  the  pope  should  re- 
nounce all  claims  to  civil  authority  out  of  his  own  terri- 
tories, and  all  power  to  depose  monarchs  and  other  rulers, 
and  to  release  their  subjects  from  their  oath  of  allegiance, 
and  in  which  especially  he  should  condemn  as  heretical 
the  maxim  of  so  many  of  his  predecessors,  that  no  faith  is 
to  be  kept  with  heretics  ?  Or  why  did  he  not  request  a 
general  council,  in  which  these  things  should  be  clearly 
defined  and  settled  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  Protestant 
majesty  the  King  of  Great  Britain?  Did  he  infer  from 
the  previous  systematic  opposition  of  the  popes  to  sanc- 
tioning those  disclaimers  on  these  points,  which  had  been 
inserted  by  the  British  kings  in  the  oaths  of  allegiance 
tendered  to  their  Romanist  subjects,  and  which  opposition 


WHAT   OUGHT   WE   TO   BELIEVE?  45 

even  Charles  Butler  is  obliged  to  condemn  as  wrong,  that 
the  pope  was  unwilling  to  commit  himself  on  these  points, 
lest  he  should  renounce  powers  which  it  might  be  expe- 
dient still  to  retain  for  future  use  ? 

If  so,  was  it  not  the  extreme  of  simplicity  in  him  to  think 
that,  by  a  mode  so  purely  congregational,  he  could  decide 
what  are  the  doctrines  of  the  Romish  church?  What 
right  have  laymen,  and  priests,  and  professors  in  univer- 
sities to  decide  what  are  the  doctrines  of  the  Romish 
church  ?  Who  authorized  them  ?  Who  gave  them  their 
authority  ?  So,  too,  Mr.  Brownson's  indignant  disclaimer 
of  Professor  Park's  implication,  that  the  Romish  church 
have  taught  the  maxim,  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics, 
—  of  what  worth  is  it  ?  He  is  neither  the  pope  nor  a 
general  council,  and  his  opinion  is  worth  no  more  than 
that  of  any  Protestant,  and  far  less  than  that  of  Professor 
Park,  as  we  shall  soon  see.  From  all  private  opinions, 
then,  I  shall  appeal  to  the  decisions  of  popes,  acquiesced 
in  by  the  bishops  of  the  Catholic  world,  and  of  general 
councils,  for  direct  and  decisive  evidence  on  the  point  in 
question. 

There  is  also  another  kind  of  evidence  to  which  I  shall 
resort.  It  is  the  ARGUMENT  CUMULATIVE  FROM  FACTS,  on 
the  obvious  principle  that  though  one  case  of  forgery,  ly- 
ing, or  perjury  does  not  prove  that  the  system  tends  to 
such  results,  yet  the  repetition  of  such  facts,  in  great  num- 
bers and  on  the  great  scale,  does  implicate  the  radical 
character  of  the  system.  The  coming  up  of  one  poison- 
ous weed  does  not  prove  that  a  given  soil  has  in  it  the 
seed  of  such  weeds  ;  but  if,  year  after  year,  such  weeds 
spring  up  in  all  directions  and  in  spite  of  all  kinds  of 
culture,  it  is  proof  that  the  seed  of  such  weeds  is  in  the 
soil.  So  if,  for  centuries,  when  the  system  of  Romanism 
was  most  fully  developed,  forgeries,  lying,  and  perjury 


46  THE  PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

became  the  order  of  the  day,  and  if  the  chief  advocates  for 
the  Papacy  have  introduced  the  most  perfect  system  of 
perjury  and  lying  by  rule  ever  known  on  earth,  then  it 
must  be  conceded  that  the  roots  of  lying  and  perjury  lie 
deep  in  the  soil  of  the  system,  and  that  the  foremen tioned 
facts  of  history  are  their  natural  and  genuine  develop- 
ment. 


CHAPTER    Y. 

POSITIONS  TO  BE  PROVED. 

-  IN  conducting  the  examination,  I  shall  consider  mainly 
that  period  in  history  when  the  system  was  left  most  to 
itself,  when  there  were  no  Protestant  nations  to  fear  or 
to  delude,  and  when  it  felt  that  the  world  was  its  own. 
Then,  surely,  would  a  divinely  established  and  infallible 
corporation  show  its  true  character  and  develop  its  real 
principles. 

I  refer  to  the  period  between  the  consummation  of  the 
Papal  power  by  the  forged  decretals  and  the  time  of  the 
council  of  Constance.  During  this  time  the  following 
general  councils  were  held :  1123,  1st  Lateran  ;  1139,  2d 
Lateran  ;  1179,3d  Lateran  ;  1215,  4th  Lateran  ;  1245,  1st 
of  Lyons  ;  1274,  2d  of  Lyons  ;  1311,  council  of  Vienna  ; 
1409,  council  of  Pisa,  which  the  Italian  party  consider  as 
not  established  among  the  general  councils ;  1414,  the 
council  of  Constance. 

The  decrees  of  these  councils  are  now  before  me  in  the 
third  volume  of  Binius,  from  which  I  shall  make  extracts. 
This  is  a  part  of  the  Roman  Bible.  It  has,  in  fact,  had  far 
more  authority  in  the  Roman  world  than  the  word  of  God. 
As  in  the  days  of  Christ,  they  have  made  void  the  law  of 
God  by  their  traditions.  Referring  to  this  and  to  other 
sources  of  evidence,  then,  I  affirm  the  following  things :  — 

1.  That  the  Romish  church  has  taught  and  sanctioned 

(47) 


48         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

lying  and  perjury,  by  professing  to  dissolve  political  oaths 
and  other  obligations,  and  authorizing  and  commanding 
men  to  act  as  if  they  were  dissolved.  Thereby  she  has 
involved  them  in  the  guilt  of  lying  and  perjury  before 
God  and  man,  as  all  enlightened  Christians  at  this  time 
fully  believe. 

2.  The  principle  that  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  a  her- 
etic was  formally  established  by  the  church  as  an  article 
of  faith,  and  all  were  solemnly  anathematized  who  should 
dare  to  call  it  in  question. 

3.  The  real  nature  of  the  dispensing  power  exercised 
by  the  popes  was  in  history  illustrated  in  such  a  variety 
of  cases  that  there  can  be  no  possibility  of  misunderstand- 
ing it.     It  has  been  used  to  dissolve,  1.  A  most  solemn 
covenant  sanctioned  by  oath  between  the  pope  and  a  Cath- 
olic sovereign.     2.  To  dissolve  most  solemn  covenants  on 
oath  between  themselves  and  the  body  of  cardinals.    3.  To 
dissolve  solemn  covenants  on  oath  between  two  Catholic 
sovereigns.     4.   To  dissolve  a  most  solemn  covenant  on 
oath  between  a  Catholic  and  a  Mahometan  sovereign. 
5.  To  dissolve  the  oaths  of  subjects  to  rulers,  both  Cath- 
olic and  heretical.     6.  To  dissolve  all  obligation  of  all 
kinds  and  of  all  men  towards  heretics. 

4.  The  effects  on  human  society  and  on  the  feelings  of 
men,  as  to  the  obligations  of  truth  and  the  sacredness  of 
an  oath  in  the  Romish  world,  have  been  such  as  would 
naturally  be  produced  by  such  doctrines. 

5.  Even  since  the  reformation,  a  code  of  morals  has 
been  promulgated,  especially  on  the  subject  of  lying  and 
perjury,  which  is  adapted  to  sap  the  very  foundations  of 
civil  society  and  reduce  the  world  to  a  state  of  perfect 
moral  degradation  and  anarchy.     And,  what  is  worthy  of 
special  notice,  it  was  promulgated  by  the  most  prominent 
deienders  of  the  Papacy,  the  society  of  the  Jesuits  —  con- 


POSITIONS   TO   BE   PROVED.  49 

cerning  whom  we  are  now  taught  by  Mr.  Brownson  that 
they  have  been  hated  in  all  ages  for  righteousness'  sake. 
They  were  so  holy,  he  would  have  us  believe,  that  this 
wicked  world  could  not  endure  them  ;  and  their  suppres- 
sion and  restoration  he  compares  to  the  crucifixion  and 
resurrection  of  Christ. 

6.  In  connection  with  these  facts,  we  are  to  consider  the 
forgeries  which  have  disgraced  the  Romish  corporation  in 
all  ages,  the  notorious  frauds  as  it  regards  relics  and  mir- 
acles, and  the  cases  in  which  prominent  ecclesiastics  have 
been  detected  in  notorious  falsehoods  as  a  means  of  pro- 
moting their  system,  and  then  ask,  Is  such  a  coincidence 
of  so  many  different  systems  of  lying  and  perjury  in  con- 
nection with  the  same  body,  followed  up  by  correspondent 
practice,  an  accident  ? 

Does  it  not  rather  look  like  the  carrying  out  of  certain 
great  original  and  fundamental  principles  of  the  system  ? 
If,  then,  we  find  these  principles  formally  laid  down  by 
supreme  authority,  and  in  numerous  and  various  modes 
reduced  to  practice,  can  any  evidence  be  conceived  of 
more  decisive? 

7.  In  order  to  complete  the  statement  of  facts,  we  add, 
finally,  that  this  system  of  perfidy  and  fraud   has  been 
linked  in  with,  and  ministered  to,  an  extended  and  exe- 
crable system  of  persecution,  with  which  the  corporation 
of  Rome  has  endeavored  cruelly  to  exterminate  all  whom 
it  has  perfidiously  disfranchised. 

5 


CHAPTER    VI. 

TESTIMONY  ADDUCED. 

I  HAVE  now  arraigned  the  Romish  corporation  before 
the  bar  of  God  and  of  the  community  on  a  charge  of  no 
light  moment,  either  to  them  as  a  body,  or  to  us  as  a  na- 
tion, or  to  the  human  race.  Let,  then,  every  thinking  mind 
closely  scrutinize  the  sufficiency  of  my  evidence. 


JOHN  HUSS  AND  THE  COUNCIL  OF  CONSTANCE. 

I  shall  begin  with  a  clear  development  of  the  principles 
and  practice  of  the  Romish  church,  as  defined  by  the  coun- 
cil of  Constance.  This,  as  all  know,  was  convened  to  ter- 
minate the  great  schism.  Of  it,  Charles  Butler,  a  distin- 
guished English  Romanist,  says,  "It  is  eminent  by  the 
number  and  character  of  the  persons  present  at  its  delib- 
erations, the  regularity  of  its  proceedings,  and  the  wisdom 
and  energy  of  its  decrees.  It  was  attended  by  thirty  car- 
dinals, four  patriarchs,  twenty  archbishops,  three  hundred 
bishops,  and  one  thousand  other  ecclesiastics." 

Bonnechose  says,  "  The  composition  of  the  council  was 
worthy  of  the  great  interests  that  were  to  be  discussed. 
There  was  not  a  kingdom,  or  state,  or  republic,  or  scarcely 
a  city  or  community  that  was  not  represented  at  Con- 
stance. Two  popes,  John  XXIII.  and  Martin  V.,  acted 

(50) 


TESTIMONY   ADDUCED.  51 

as  presidents,  one  at  the  beginning,  the  other  at  the  end." 
John  Huss  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  council  and 
answer  to  charges  against  him  for  heresy.  Before  going, 
he  applied  to  the  Emperor  Sigismund  for  a  safe  conduct. 
It  was  given.  The  terms  were  as  follows  :  — 

"  We  have  received  the  honorable  Mr.  John  Huss  under 
our  protection  and  defence."  To  all  authorities  he  says, 
"  Allow  him  without  any  impediment  to  go,  to  stop,  to  re- 
main, and  TO  RETURN  freely  ;  and,  whenever  it  shall  be  ne- 
cessary, let  it  be  your  pleasure,  as  it  is  your  duty,  to  make 
provision  for  his  secure  and  safe  conduct,  for  the  honor 
and  reverence  of  our  majesty." 

Notwithstanding  this,  the  council,  by  a  deputation  to  the 
emperor,  distinctly  urged  it  upon  him  that  he  was  under 
no  obligation  to  keep  his  promise  to  a  heretic.  Dachery, 
an  eye  witness,  in  his  German  history  of  the  council,  con- 
firms this  fact :  he  says,  "  The  deputation,  in  a  long  speech, 
persuaded  the  emperor  that,  by  decretal  authority,  he  should 
not  keep  faith  with  a  man  accused  of  heresy."  And  in  the 
canon  law,  Decret.  Greg.,  book  v.  tit.  viii.  cap.  xvi.,  we 
find  as  follows  :  — 

"  Those  who  were  bound  by  any  obligations  to  heretics 
are  freed  from  all  obligation."  "Let  those  who  were 
bound  to  those  who  have  manifestly  fallen  into  heresy  by 
any  compact,  NO  MATTER  WITH  WHAT  DEGREE  OF  STRENGTH  IT 
MAY  HAVE  BEEN  CONFIRMED,  know  that  they  are  absolved 
from  all  obligations  of  FIDELITY,  authority,  and  obedience 
of  any  kind." 

In  the  third  Lateran  'council,  twenty-seventh  canon,  a 
similar  injunction  exists  as  it  regards  those  who  coun- 
tenance certain  heretics  whom  the  council  had  excommu- 
nicated. 

"  Let  those  who  are  bound  to  them  by  any  compact  or 
covenant  know  that  they  are  released  from  all  obligation 
of  fidelity,  homage,  and  every  kind  of  obedience  whilst 
they  remain  in  so  great  iniquity." 


52         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Tliis,  it  seems,  they  urged  on  the  emperor,  as  applicable 
to  him  if  he  protected  Huss.  The  council  also  threatened 
Sigismund,  as  he  expressly  affirms,  that  they  would  break 
up  the  sessions  and  disperse,  and  thus  defeat  his  great  end, 
—  that  is,  the  healing  the  schism,  —  if  he  persisted  in  his 
purpose  to  defend  Huss  according  to  his  safe  conduct.  In 
these  and  other  ways  they  prevailed.  Sigismund  was 
taught  by  them  that  no  faith  was  to  be  kept  with  a  heretic, 
and  urged  against  his  better  feelings,  till  he  consented  to 
do  the  will  of  the  council.  Huss  refused  to"  perjure  him- 
self by  abjuring  errors  which  he  did  not  hold  ;  nor  would 
he  renounce  what  the  council  called  errors  till  convinced 
by  them  from  the  Bible  that  they  were  so.  Hence  they 
condemned  him  to  the  stake ;  degraded  him  to  the  con- 
dition of  a  layman  ;  delivered  him  to  the  emperor;  he  deliv- 
ered him  to  the  chief  magistrate  of  Constance,  and  he  to 
the  executioners. 

Let  us  survey  the  closing  scene.  I  give  it  in  the  words 
of  Emile  de  Bonnechose,  in  his  Reformers  before  the  Ref- 
ormation, pp.  103,  104,  New  York  edition  :  — 

"  They  placed  on  his  head  a  sort  of  crown,  or  pyramidal 
mitre,  on  which  were  painted  frightful  figures  of  demons, 
with  this  inscription  :  '  THE  ARCH-HERETIC  ; '  and,  when  he 
was  thus  arrayed,  the  prelates  devoted  his  soul  to  the 
devils.  John  Huss,  however,  recommended  his  spirit  to 
God,  and  said  aloud,  '  I  wear  with  joy  this  crown  of  op- 
probrium, for  the  love  of  Him  who  bore  a  crown  of 
thorns.'  • 

"  The  church  then  gave  up  all  claim  to  him ;  declared 
him  a  layman ;  and,  as  such,  delivered  him  over  to  the 
secular  power,  to  conduct  him  to  the  place  of  punishment. 
John  Huss,  by  the  order  of  Sigismund,  was  given  up  by  the 
Elector  Palatine,  vicar  of  tJie  empire,  to  the  chief  magistrate 
of  Constance,  who,  in  his  turn,  abandoned  him  to  the  officers 
of  justice.  He  walked  between  four  town  Serjeants  to  the 
place  of  execution.  The  princes  followed,  with  an  escort 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  53 

of  eight  hundred  men,  strongly  armed  ;  and  the  concourse 
of  the  people  was  so  prodigious  that  a  bridge  was  very 
near  breaking  down  under  the  multitude.  '  In  passing  by 
the  episcopal  palace,  Huss  beheld  a  great  fire  consuming 
his  books  ;  and  he  smiled  at  the  sight. 

"  The  place  of  punishment  was  a  meadow  adjoining  the 
gardens  of  the  city,  outside  the  gate  of  Gotleben.  On  ar- 
riving there,  Huss  kneeled  down  and  recited  some  of  the 
Penitential  Psalms.  Several  of  the  people,  hearing  him 
pray  with  fervor,  said  aloud,  '"We  are  ignorant  of  this 
man's  crime  ;  but  he  offers  up  to  God  most  excellent 
prayers.' 

''  When  he  was  in  front  of  the  pile  of  wood  which  was 
to  consume  his  body  he  was  recommended  to  confess  his 
sins.  Huss  consented,  and  a  priest  was  brought  to  him,  a 
man  of  great  learning  and  high  reputation.  The  priest 
refused  to  hear  him  unless  he  avowed  his  errors  and  re- 
tracted. 'A  heretic,'  he  observed,  'can  neither  give  nor 
receive  the  sacraments.'  Huss  replied,  '  I  do  not  feel  my- 
self to  be  guilty  of  any  mortal  sin  ;  and,  now  that  I  am  on 
the  point  of  appearing  before  God,  I  will  not  purchase 
absolution  by  a  perjury.' 

"  When  he  wished  to  address  the  crowd  in  German,  the 
Elector  Palatine  opposed  it,  and  ordered  him  to  be  forth- 
with burned.  'Lord  Jesus,'  cried  John  Huss,  'I  shall 
endeavor  to  endure  with  humility  this  frightful  death, 
which  I  am  awarded  for  thy  holy  gospel.  Pardon  all  my 
enemies.'  Whilst  he  was  praying  thus,  with  his  eyes  raised 
up  to  heaven,  the  paper  crown  fell  off  :  he  smiled  ;  but  the 
soldiers  replaced  it  on  his  head,  in  order,  as  they  declared, 
that  he  might  be  burned  with  the  devils  whom  he  had 
obeyed. 

"Having  obtained  permission  to  speak  to  his  keepers, 
he  thanked  them  for  the  good  treatment  he  had  received 
at  their  hands.  'My brethren,'  said  he,  'learn  that  I  firm- 
ly believe  in  my  Savior  :  it  is  in  his  name  that  I  suffer ;  and 
this  very  day  shall  I  go  and  reign  with  him.' 

"  His  body  was  then  bound  with  thongs,  with  which  he 

was  firmly  tied  to  a  stake  driven  deep  into  the  ground. 

"When  he  was   so  affixed   some  persons  objected  to    his 

face  being  turned  to  the  east,  saying  that  this  ought  not  to 

5* 


54         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED.  _ 

be,  since  he  was  a  heretic.  He  was  then  untied  and  bound 
again  to  the  stake  with  his  face  to  the  west.  His  head 
was  held  close  to  the  wood  by  a  chain  smeared  with  soot, 
and  the  view  of  which  inspired  him  with  pious  reflections 
on  the  ignominy  of  our  Savior's  sufferings. 

"  Fagots  were  then  arranged  about  and  Under  his  feet, 
and  around  him  was  piled  up  a  quantity  of  wood  and  straw. 
When  all  these  preparations  were  completed,  the  Elector 
Palatine,  accompanied  by  Count  d'Oppenheim,  marshal  of 
the  empire,  came  up  to  him,  and  for  the  last  time  recom- 
mended him  to  retract.  But  he,  looking  up  to  heaven, 
said  with  a  loud  voice,  '  I  call  God  to  witness,  that  I  have 
never  either  taught  or  written  what  those  false  witnesses 
have  laid  to  my  charge.  My  sermons,  my  books,  my  writ- 
ings have  all  been  done  with  the  sole  view  of  rescuing 
souls  from  the  tyranny  of  sin  ;  and  therefore  most  joy- 
fully will  I  confirm  with  my  blood  that  truth  which  I  have 
taught,  written,  and  preached,  and  which  is  confirmed  by 
the  divine  law  and  the  holy  fathers.7 

"  The  elector  and  the  marshal  then  withdrew,  and  fire 
was  set  to  the  pile.  '  Jesus,  Son  of  the  living  God,'  cried 
John  Huss,  '  have  pity  on  me ! '  He  prayed  and  sung  a 
hymn  in  the  midst  of  his  torments;  but  soon  after,  the  wind 
having  risen,  his  voice  was  drowned  by  the  roaring  of  the 
flames.  He  was  perceived  for  some  time  longer  moving 
his  head  and  lips,  and  as  if  still  praying  ;  and  then  he 
gave  up  the  spirit.  His  habits  were  burned  with  him  ;  and 
the  executioners  tore  in  pieces  the  remains  of  his  body  and 
threw  them  back  into  the  funeral  pile  until  the  fire  had 
absolutely  consumed  every  thing.  The  ashes  were  then 
collected  together  and  thrown,  into  the  Rhine." 

Of  these  proceedings  the  council  of  Constance  are  the 
real  authors.  So  they  regarded  the  case,  and  felt  them- 
selves called  on  to  defend  both  themselves  and  Sigismund. 
To  effect  this  they  passed  two  decrees  —  one  relating  to 
the  impropriety  of  allowing  a  safe  conduct  to  arrest  trial 
and  punishment  for  heresy  ;  the  other  to  defend  Sigismund 
for  his  treachery  to  John  Huss,  in  authorizing  his  punish- 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  55 

ment  and  giving  him  up  to  the  magistrates  of  Constance 
to  be  burned.  In  this  second  decree  they  not  only  state 
the  doctrine  that  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics,  but 
solemnly  anathematize  all  who  shall  dare  to  call  in  ques- 
tion the  proceedings  of  the  council  or  of  Sigismund. 

Concerning  this  Gieseler  says,  "  To  justify  the  emperor 
for  the  infringement  of  his  safe  conduct,  the  council  passed 
the  shameful  decree,  that  no  faith  need  be  held  with  a 
heretic."  The  following  is  a  literal  translation  of  these 
decrees  :  — 

"  This  holy  synod  declares  that  no  prejudice  to  the  Cath- 
olic faith  can  or  ought  to  be  produced,  and  no  impediment 
to  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  interposed,  by  any  safe  con- 
duct given  by  the  emperor,  kings,  and  other  secular  pow- 
ers to  heretics  or  those  charged  with  heresy,  supposing 
that  they  shall  thus  recall  them  from  their  errors,  what- 
ever be  the  obligation  with  which  they  have  bound  them- 
selves. But,  notwithstanding  the  said  safe  conduct,  it  shall 
be  lawful  for  a  competent  ecclesiastical  judge  to  inquire 
into  the  errors  of  such  persons,  and  to  proceed  against 
such  errors  in  other  ways,  according  to  their  deserts,  and 
to  punish  them  as  much  as  justice  demands  if  they  shall  ob- 
stinately refuse  to  recant  their  errors,  although  they  came 
to  the  place  of  trial  relying  on  the  safe  conduct,  and  other- 
wise would  not  have  come." 

The  second  decree  is  this  :  — 

"Whereas  some  ill-informed  or  ill-disposed  persons, 
or  some  accustomed,  perhaps,  to  think  themselves  wiser 
than  they  ought,  not  only  assail  his  royal  majesty  with 
slanderous  tongues,  but  even,  as  it  is  said,  this  holy 
council,  saying  or  insinuating,  publicly  or  privately,  that 
the  safe  conduct  given  by  that  most  unconquerable  prince 
Lord  Sigismund,  King  of  the  Romans  and  of  Hungary, 
to  John  Huss,  that  heresiarch  of  damnable  memory,  was 
violated  when  it  ought  not  to  have  been,  contrary  to 
justice  or  honor  ;  when  still  the  said  John  Huss,  obsti- 


56          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

nately  assailing  the  orthodox  faith,  had  rendered  him- 
self undeserving  of  any  safe  conduct  and  privilege ;  nor 
ought  any  faith  or  promise  to  be  observed  to  him,  to  the  injury 
of  the  Catholic  faith,  by  any  law,  natural,  divine,  or  human. 
Therefore  the  said  holy  synod,  by  the  terms  of  this  decree, 
declares  that  the  aforesaid  most  unconquerable  prince  did 
what  was  suitable  according  to  the  claims  of  justice,  and 
what  was  becoming  his  royal  majesty,  concerning  the  afore- 
said John  Huss,  notwithstanding  the  aforesaid  safe  con- 
duct —  ordaining  and  enjoining  on  all  faithful  Christians, 
in  general  and  in  particular,  that  no  one  hereafter  shall 
reproach  this  sacred  council  or  his  royal  majesty  with 
their  conduct  towards  the  aforesaid  John  Huss,  or  in  any 
way  speak  to  their  discredit.  But  whoever  shall  do 
otherwise,  let  him  be  punished  without  mercy,  as  a  sup- 
porter of  heresy  and  guilty  of  treason." 

Notwithstanding,  therefore,  the  accumulated  protesta- 
tion of  the  foreign  universities  to  Mr.  Pitt  and  the  in- 
dignation of  Mr.  Brownson,  this  infallible  council  has 
taught  the  doctrine,  in  theory  and  practice,,  that  no  faith 
is  to  be  kept  with  heretics  ;  and  not  only  so,  but  they  have 
taught  it  as  an  article  of  faith,  and  declared  him  worthy 
of  punishment  without  mercy,  as  a  heretic,  if  he  denies  it. 

And  why  should  not  the  council  take  this  ground  ? 
Had  it  not  been  the  avowed  principle  of  the  most  influ- 
ential pontiffs  during  that  "glorious  period,"  the  middle 
ages  ?  Had  not  other  councils,  in  effect,  decreed  the  same 
thing  ?  I  shall  soon  show  that  they  had.  If,  then,  these 
things  are  so,  there  is  presented  to  Mr.  B.,  and  to  all  other 
Romanists,  this  dilemma  —  either  to  adopt  the  maxim,  or 
to  reject  the  authority  of  that  church  which  has  thus,  by 
sanctioning  perjury  in  its  basest  form,  alike  invaded  the 
most  sacred  rights  and  outraged  the  most  holy  moral 
convictions  of  God  and  man. 

Nothing  can  be  more  decisive  than  this  testimony  ;  yet 
I  will,  for  the  sake  of  rendering  assurance  doubly  sure, 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  57 

proceed  to  adduce  more  "  facts,  names,  and  dates  "  on  the 
points  involved.  My  additional  witnesses  will  be  Urban 
VI.,  Innocent  VIII.,  Innocent  III.,  and  the  fourth  Lateran 
council. 

POPE  URBAN  VI.  VERSUS  0.  A.  BROWNSOX. 

It  would  almost  seem  to  have  been  the  object  of  Urban 
VI.  to  contradict  Mr.  Brownson's  assertion  in  the  strongest 
possible  terms.  He  lays  down  explicitly,  and  in  the  most 
general  terms  possible,  that  no  promises,  covenants,  leagues, 
or  engagements  of  any  kind  with  heretics  are  to  be  re- 
garded as  of  any  binding  force. 

But  who  was  Urban  VI.  ?  He  sat  in  the  pontifical 
chair  from  the  year  1378  to  the  year  1389.  He  was  a 
Neapolitan,  known  by  the  name  of  Bartholomew  Pregnano 
before  he  ascended  the  Papal  throne.  He  is  found  in 
the  list  of  Bishop  Kenrick  as  the  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
eighth  pope.  In  that  of  M.  Daunou  he  is  the  two  hundred 
and  fifth.  Both  coincide  in  regarding  him  as  one  of  the 
genuine  successors  of  Peter,  through  whom  all  manner  of 
truth  and  grace  has  come  down  even  to  the  present 
generation. 

On  the  fourth  year  of  his  pontificate,  on  the  third  day 
of  the  calends  of  April,  and  from  the  palace  of  St.  Peter 
at  Rome,  he  issued  a  decree  of  great  moment.  To  this  I 
invite  the  special  attention  of  Mr.  Brownson,  and  of  all 
who  desire  to  judge  of  Mr.  Brownson's  orthodoxy  as  a 
•genuine  Romanist.  It  is  a  matter  of  no  small  moment  for 
Mr.  Brownson  to  look  to  it ;  for,  unless  Pope  Urban  is  mis- 
taken, Mr.  Brownson  is  at  this  time  lying  beneath  the 
indignation  of  Almighty  God,  and  of  the  blessed  Paul 
and  Peter,  his  apostles,  for  having  dared  to  infringe  and 
contravene  the  decree  of  his  sovereign  lord  the  pope. 


58          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

As  it  is  thus  a  matter  intimately  connected  with  the 
salvation  of  his  soul,  that  Mr.  Brownson  may  have  all  the 
means  necessary  for  ascertaining  his  deplorable  condition, 
I  would  refer  him  to  the  decree  in  question,  in  order  that 
he  may  give  it  a  careful  examination.  He  will  find  it  on 
page  352  of  the  seventh  volume  of  Rymer's  Fcedera,  begin- 
ning thus  :  "  Urbanus  Episcopus,  servus  servorum  Dei,  ad 
futuram  rei  memoriam  ;  "  i.  e.,  "  Bishop  Urban,  the  servant 
of  the  servants  of  God,  in  order  to  keep  the  thing  in 
everlasting  remembrance,  issues  this  decree."  Mr.  Brown- 
son  can  find  a  copy  of  this  work  in  the  law  library  of 
Harvard  College,  and  another  in  the  college  library  of  the 
same  institution.  From  the  first  I  copy  the  substance  of 
the  decree. 

From  the  first  and  second  sections  of  the  decree  it  ap- 
pears that,  to  nse  the  words  of  Urban,  "  Winceslaus,  King 
of  the  Romans  and  of  Bohemia,  and  the  most  illustrious 
Charles,  Emperor  of  the  Romans,  had,  either  simultaneously 
or  in  succession,  entered  into  and  made  certain  confedera- 
tions, or  contracts,  or  leagues,  and  agreements  with  divers 
kings,  princes,  dukes,  counts,  chief  men,  nobles,  and  certain 
others,  and  that  some  of  these  kings,  princes,  dukes,  counts, 
&c.,  either  then  were,  or  afterwards  became,  manifest  schis- 
matics, or  heretics,  and  separated  from  the  unity  of  the 
holy  Roman  and  universal  church ; "  therefore,  in  view  of 
these  things,  Bishop  Urban  was  filled  with  deep  anxiety 
lest  true  Romanists  should  be  shaken  from  the  faith  by  in- 
tercourse with  such  heretics,  and  felt  himself  called  on  to 
issue  this  decree, "  for  the  everlasting  memory  of  the  thing." 

The  great  question  to  be  settled,  of  course,  was,  in  what 
manner  ought  such  confederations,  or  contracts,  or  leagues, 
and  agreements  with  heretics  to  be  regarded  and  treated, 
Are  they  binding,  and  to  be  observed  in  good  faith  ?  or  are 
they  null  and  void  ? 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  59 

In  these  circumstances,  and  with  reference  to  this  ques- 
tion, Pope  Urban  issued  his  decree,  and  closed  it  with  the 
solemn  assurance  that  the  wrath  of  Almighty  God,  and  of 
the  blessed  apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  would  rest  on  those 
who  with  impious  temerity  should  dare  to  resist  or  infringe 
it.  Now,  that  this  is  the  very  thing  that  Mr.  Brownson 
has  done,  I  propose  next  to  show.  Let  us,  then,  attend  to 
the  solemn  decision  of  the  pope  upon  a  point  so  grave. 
He  first  proceeds  in  the  most  explicit  and  solemn  manner 
to  state  the  general  principles  on  which  his  decision  was 
to  be  based,  and  then  to  apply  them  to  the  case  in  question. 
Notice  his  words  :  — 

"  We  therefore,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  confederations,  or 
contracts,  or- leagues,  and  agreements  made  with  heretics  of 
this  kind,  or  with  schismatics,  after  they  have  become  such, 
are  unreasonable,  unlawful,  and  of  right  to  be  regarded  as 
not  existing,  (even  although  they  may  have  been  made  be- 
fore they  fell  into  schism  or  heresy ;)  and  although  they 
may  have  been  confirmed  by  an  oath,  or  a  solemn  pledge 
of  fidelity,  or  by  an  apostolic  confirmation,  OB  STRENGTH- 
ENED BY  ANY  OTHER  CONFIRMATION,"  &C.  So  much  for 

the  statement  of  principles.    And  surely  it  is  sufficiently 
explicit  to  satisfy  even  the  most  confirmed  sceptic. 

Now  for  the  practical  application.  On  such  grounds 
the  pontiff  proceeds  solemnly  to  declare,  that  "  the  king 
and  others  who  together  with  him  may  have  entered  into 
or  made  such  confederations,  or  contracts,  or  leagues,  and 
agreements,  and  to  whom  such  confederations,  or  contracts, 
or  leagues,  and  agreements  can  be  extended,  or  who  have 
or  can  have  any  interest  in  them,  are  absolved  from  them, 
and  OUGHT  NOT  TO  OBSERVE  THEM." 

Nor  is  this  all.     In  the  third  section  the  pontiff  enjoini 


60         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

it  upon  the  king  to  assail  such  heretics  with  his  whole 
power,  on  the  ground  that  all  communion  with  them  13 
dangerous  to  the  soul. 

In  the  fourth  section  he  declares  that  he  is  animated  by 
a  motive  similar  to  that  which  Mr.  Brownson  avows  as 
the  mainspring  of  his  zeal  —  i.  e.,  an  earnest  desire  of 
saving  the  soul  of  the  king  and  of  others  from  ruin  by- 
heresy. 

In  order,  therefore,  to  effect  so  laudable  a  purpose,  he 
proceeds  in  the  fifth  section,  in  due  form,  to  absolve  the 
king  and  all  others  from  all  obligation  of  any  sort  to  keep 
foith  with  heretics.  Listen  to  his  words  :  "  We  therefore, 
by  the  tenor  of  these  letters  and  by  apostolic  authority, 
declare  that  the  aforesaid  king,  and  all  others  who  are-  or 
can  be  concerned,  have  been  and  are  wholly  absolved  from 
the  observance  of  such  confederations,  or  contracts,  or 
leagues,  and  agreements,  and  are  not  bound  to  observe 
them  in  the  least  degree.  Moreover,  so  far  as,  de  facto, 
they  have  proceeded  in  them,  we  invalidate  them,  render 
them  void,  and  declare  them  to  be  destitute  of  all  binding 
power." 

/ 

Nor  is  this  enough.  As  if  to  make  assurance  doubly 
sure,  in  the  great  work  of  saving  souls,  he  proceeds  in  the 
sixth  section  absolutely  to  forbid  the  observance  of  such 
leagues  and  agreements.  "  Moreover,  to  avert  dangers  from 
the  soul  of  the  Icing  and  all  others  concerned,  we  utterly  forbid 
them  at  all  to  regard  such  confederations,  contracts,  leagues, 
and  agreements,  or  to  suffer  them  to  be  regarded  by  ot/iers." 

He  then  elevates  his  mind  to  the  contemplation  of  future 
ages,.and  considers  the  probability  that  ignorant  or  wicked 
men,  like  Mr.  Brownson,  will  assail  the  sublime  principles 
thus  promulgated,  and  binds  them  to  desist  by  a  solemn 


TESTIMONY   ADDUCED.  61 

decree.  Thus  in  the  seventh  section  he  proceeds :  "  We 
decree  that  from  this  time,  whatever  shall  be  attempted  in 
opposition  to  us,  by  whomsoever  undertaken,  or  by  what- 
ever authority,  and  whether  ignorantly  or  intelligently, 
shall  be  utterly  devoid  of  authority  and  force." 

Then  in  the  eighth  section  follows  his  final  warning  to 
all  ages  against  so  great  a  crime,  and  a  denunciation  of 
his  highest  anathemas  against  its  authors.  "  Let  no  man 
dare  to  infringe  this  declaration  or  with  foolhardy  au- 
dacity rush  against  it.  But  if  any  one  shall  presume  to 
attempt  this  deed,  let  him  know  that  he  will  surely  incur 
the  indignation  of  Almighty  God  and  of  his  blessed 
apostles  Peter  and  Paul." 

"  Sub  filis  sericis  Flavi,  Rubique  coloris,  De  Curia  T. 
Frabi." 

The  margin  of  Rymer  informs  us  that  the  document  in 
question  was  copied  from  the  original  autographs.  Who, 
now,  can  read  this  decree  and  not  be  struck  with  the  im- 
minent peril  in  which  the  soul  of  Mr.  Brownson  is  placed  ? 
For  he  has  not  only,  dared  in  general  to  oppose  the  prin- 
ciples of  this  decree,  but  utterly  to  denounce  them  as  im- 
pious and  profane.  Professor  Park  had  ascribed  to  the 
Roman  Catholic  church  the  advocacy  of  the  very  princi- 
ples so  clearly  set  forth  by  Pope  Urban  ;  and  Mr.  Brown- 
son,  instead  of  recognizing  them  and  standing  up  like  a 
man  in  defence  of  his  sovereign  lord  the  pope,  Peter-like 
denies  him  and  Judas-like  betrays  him.  Listen  to  his 
daring  words  :  — 

" '  No  faith  to  be  kept  with  heretics.'  Where  did  the 
professor  learn  that  this  is  a  maxim  of  Catholicity?  It 
is  false.  Catholicity  knows  no  such  maxim,  and  Catho- 
lic history  authorizes  no  inference  that  she  practically 
adopts  or  in  the  least  conceivable  manner  countenances' 
it.  Individuals  of  bad  faith  may  be  found,  no  doubt,  even 
among  Catholics  ;  but  that  Catholicity  or  Catholic  doc- 


G2         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

tors  any  where  countenance  any  thing  of  the  sort  is  a 
malignant  falsehood.  We  are  taught  and  required  to 
keep  our  faith  with  all  men  ;  and  faith  plighted  to  a  here- 
tic can  no  more  be  broken  without  sin  than  faith  plighted 
to  a  true  believer.  We  would  that  Protestants  would 
observe  a  tithe  of  the  good  faith  towards  Catholics  that 
Catholics  do  towards  Protestants ;  and,  when  they  shall 
do  so,  we  give  them  free  leave  to  abuse  our  morals  to 
their  full  satisfaction." 

Here  Mr.  Brownson  boldly  declares  that  the  maxim, 
"  that  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics,"  is  not  a  maxim 
of  Catholicity,  and  manifests  an  utter  detestation  of  it. 
Pope  Urban  declares  that  it  is.  Mr.  Brownson  declares 
that  "  Catholic  history  authorizes  no  inference  that  she 
practically  adopts  or  in  the  least  conceivable  manner  coun- 
tenances it."  Pope  Urban  declares  that  the  wrath  of 
Almighty  God  and  the  blessed  apostles  Peter  and  Paul 
shall  rest  upon  all  who  dare  to  assail  so  fundamental  a 
doctrine.  Mr.  Brownson  plainly  declares  that  keeping 
faith  with  heretics  is  a  duty,  and  intimates  that  it  is  essen- 
tial to  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  Pope  Urban  declares 
that  it  is  a  crime,  and  enjoins  the  duty  of  violating  faith 
with  heretics  as  essential  to  save  the  soul.  Thus  we  see 
that  there  is  a  direct  and  fatal  collision  between  Pope 
Urban  VI.  and  Orestes  A.  Brownson,  and  that,  if  Pope  Ur- 
ban is  right,  the  wrath  of  God  is  resting  on  Mr.  Brownson. 

Let  no  one  say  that  there  was  no  general  council  assem- 
bled to  confirm  this  decision  of  Pope  Urban.  It  was  given 
ex  cathedra,  and  was  acquiesced  in  by  all  the  bishops  with- 
out any  known  dissent.  It  is,  therefore,  a  solemn  decision 
of  the  church  ;  and  it  is  sustained  by  councils  in  abun- 
dance. 

And  now  let  Mr.  Brownson  recall  his  public  declara- 
tions of  his  entire  submission  to  the  authority  of  the  pope. 
He  has  openly  declared  that  for  him  it  is  liberty  enough 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  63 

to  think  as  the  pope  thinks.  And,  in  view  of  all  the  facts 
in  the  premises,  let  him,  if  he  dares,  candidly  answer  the 
following  questions :  — 

1.  Does  he  believe  that  Pope  Urban  spoke  the  truth  of 
God,  or  that  he  promulgated  the  doctrines  of  devils  ? 

2.  If  he  spoke  the  truth  of  God,  then  is  not  Mr.  Brown- 
sou  under  the  wrath  of  Almighty  God  and  of  the  blessed 
apostles  Peter  and  Paul  for  his  impious  statements  above 
quoted  ?     And,  as  he  is  very  anxious   to    save  his  soul, 
ought  he  not  at  once  and  publicly  to  recant  them  ? 

3.  If  Pope  Urban  spoke  the  doctrines  of  devils,  then  is 
not  his  whole  decree  a  specimen  of  the  highest  impiety 
and  blasphemy  ever  uttered  in  the  name  of  God  ? 

4.  Of  what   use  is  a  head  of  the   church  when   it  is 
necessary  to  reject  his  blasphemies  to  save  the  soul  ? 

5.  By   what  rule  can   it   be  decided  whether  a  pope 
speaks  the  truth  of  God  or  utters  the  blasphemies  of  the 
devil  ? 

If  Mr.  Brownson  "will  devote  his  energies  to  a  careful 
investigation  of  these  questions,  and  will  give  them  an 
honest  answer,  then  for  his  reward  I  will  continue  to  pro- 
pose similar  questions  till  he  shall  have  had  a  full  oppor- 
tunity to  illustrate  to  the  whole  American  people  one  of 
the  most  important  and  practical  questions  of  the  age. 


POPE  INXOCEXT  VIII.   AXD  THE  WALDENSES. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  case  of  John  Huss,  and  of  Winces- 
laus,  and  Charles,  that  the  principle,  "no  faith  is  to  be 
kept  with  heretics,"  was  not  a  mere  theoretical  principle. 
It  had  a  dread  practical  power.  Nor  are  these  solitary 
instances  of  its  terrific  operation. 

The  fate  of  the  Waldenses  is  too  familiar  to  need  an 


64  TIIE  PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

elaborate  historical  narration.  I  will  simply  present  the 
principles  on  which  the  head  of  the  church  dealt  with 
that  people,  whose  only  crime  was  disobedience  to  the 
see  of  Rome. 

Pope  Innocent  VIII.,  in  preparing  to  consign  to  death, 
not  one  martyr,  but  a  whole  body  of  Christians,  thus  com- 
missions Albert  de  Capitaneis,  Archdeacon  of  the  church 
of  Cremona,  as  nuncio  and  commissioner  of  the  apostolic 
see,  to  labor,  in  concert  with  the  inquisitor  general,  in  the 
extermination  of  the  Waldenses.  The  pope  subjects'  to 
his  authority  for  this  end  all  archbishops,  bishops,  their 
vicars  and  chief  officers.  If  ever  a  pope  was  called  on  to 
act  on  the  real  principles  of  the  church,  it  was  in  such  a 
case.  For  what  end,  then,  are  all  these  church  powers 
subjected  to  the  legate  of  the  pope  ?  Hear  him :  — 

"  In  order  that  they  may  be  obliged  with  you  and  the 
said  inquisitor  to  take  up  arms  against  the  said  Walden- 
ses and  other  heretics,  and  to  come  to  an  understanding 
to  crush  them  like  venomous  asps,  and  to  contribute  all 
in  their  care  to  so  HOLY  and  so  necessary  an  extermi- 
nation." 

After  this,  can  any  one  expect  that  any  faith  will  be 
kept  with  men  all  of  whose  rights  are  thus  exterminated 
at  one  blow  ?  The  head  of  the  Romish  corporation  then 
proceeds  to  overturn  all  foundations  of  morality  by  ex- 
cusing and  sanctioning  the  sins  of  those  who  will  labor 
to  exterminate  the  Waldenses,  and  declaring  in  express 
terms  that  none  are  under  any  obligation  to  keep  faith 
with  heretics. 

"  We  give  you  power  to  have  the  crusade  preached  up 
by  fit  men  ;  to  grant  that  such  persons  as  shall  enter  on 
the  crusade  and  fight  against  these  same  heretics,  and 
shall  contribute  to  it,  may  gain  plenary  indulgence  and 
remission  of  all  their  sins  once  in  their  life,  and  also  at 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  65 

their  death  ;  to  command,  in  virtue  of  their  holy  obe- 
dience, and  under  penalty  of  excommunication,  all  preach- 
ers of  God's  word  to  animate  and  incite  the  same  believers 
to  exterminate  the  pestilence,  without  sparing,  by  force 
and  by  arms.  "We  further  give  you  power  to  absolve 
those  who  enter  on  the  crusade,  fight,  or  contribute  to  it, 
from  all  sentences,  censures,  and  ecclesiastical  penalties, 
general  or  particular,  by  which  they  may  be  bound,  as 
also  to  give  them  dispensation  for  any  irregularity  con- 
tracted in  divine  matters,  or  for  any  apostasy,  and  to 
enter  into  some  terms  of  composition  with  them  for  the 
goods  which  they  may  have  secretly  amassed,  badly  acquired, 
or  held  doubtfully,  applying  them  to  the  expenses  attend- 
ant on  this  extirpation  of  heretics  ;  *  *  *  to  concede 
to  each  permission  to  lawfully  seize  on  the  property,  real  or 
personal,  of  heretics ;  also  to  command  all  being  in  the 
service  of  these  same  heretics,  in  whatsoever  place  they 
may  be,  to  withdraw  from  it  under  whatever  penalty  you 
may  deem  fit ;  and  by  the  same  authority  to  declare  that 
they  and  all  others  who  may  be  held  and  obliged  by  contract 
or  other  manner  to  pay  them  any  thing  are  not  for  the 
future  in  any  way  obliged  to  do  so  ;  and  to  deprive  all 
those  refusing  to  obey  your  admonitions  and  commands,  of 
whatever  dignity,  state,  order,  and  preeminence  they  may 
possess,  —  to  wit,  the  ecclesiastics  of  their  dignities,  offices, 
and  benefices,  and  the  laity  of  their  hon-ors,  titles,  fefs,  and 
privileges,  —  if  they  persist  in  their  rebellion  ;  *  *  * 
and  to  fulminate  all  kinds  of  censures,  according  as  the 
casein  your  judgment  may  demand  ;  *  *  *  to  absolve 
and  reestablish  such  as  may  wish  to  return  to  the  lap  of 
the  church,  although  they  may  have  sworn  to  favor  the 
heretics,  provided,  taking  the  contrary  oath,  they  promise 
to  abstain  most  carefully  from  doing  so.  *  *  *  You, 
therefore,  beloved  son,  receiving  with  a  devout  spirit  the 
charge  of  so  praiseworthy  an  affair,  must  show  yourself 
diligent  and  careful  of  word  and  deed  in  its  execution. 
Act  so  that  by  your  acts,  accompanied  by  the  divine  grace, 
all  may  succeed  in  conformity  with  our  expectation,  and 
that  by  your  solicitude  you  may  merit,  not  only  the  glory 
which  falls  to  the  lot  of  those  engaged  in  works  of  piety, 
but  that  you  also  may  be  in  far  greater  favor  with  us  and 
(5* 


66  THE   PAPAL   CONSPIEACY   EXPOSED. 

the  apostolic  see  on  account  of  your  very  exact  diligence 
and  "faithful  integrity. 

"  Given  at  Rome,  at  St.  Peter's,  the  year  of  the  in- 
carnation of  our  Lord  1487,  fifth  of  the  calends  of  May, 
and  the  thirteenth  year  of  our  pontificate." 

Let  it  be  noticed  here  that  we  are  not  now  considering 
an  individual  of  bad  faith  here  and  there  among  the 
Catholics,  such  as  Mr.  Brownson  admits  may  be  found, 
but  the  head  of  the  church,  laying  down  principles  on 
which  all  Romanists  were  to  act.  He  authorizes  his 
legate  to  declare  that  it  is  lawful  to  seize  on  t/ie  property, 
reed  or  personal,  of  the  heretics,  and  to  declare  that  all 
who  may  be  held  and  obliged  by  contract  or  other  manner 
to  pay  them  any  thing  are  not  for  the  future  in  any  way 
obliged  to  do  so  ;  to  absolve  those  who  have  sworn  to  favor 
the  heretics,  provided,  talcing  t/ie  contrary  oath,  they  pr,om- 
ise  to  abstain  most  carefully  from  doing  so.  Here  robbery, 
cheating,  and  perjury  towards  heretics  in  their  grossest 
forms  are  authorized  by  the  head  of  the  Romish  corpora- 
tion ;  and  in  his  bull  the  whole  corporation  and  church 
acquiesced  :  no  dissent,  no  protest,  was  heard.  Nay,  more  : 
they  carried  out  these  principles,  to  their  utmost  extent, 
without  mitigation  and  without  mercy.  It  is,  therefore, 
the  voice  of  the  Romish  church  and  her  act.  And  yet,  in 
view  of  such  facts,  Mr.  Brownson  has  the  audacity  to  say, 
"'No  faith  to  be  kept  with  heretics.'  Where  did  the 
professor  learn  that  this  is  a  maxim  of  Catholicity?  It 
is  false.  Catholicity  knows  no  such  maxim,  and  Catholic 
history  authorizes  no  inference  that  she  practically  adopts 
or  in  the  least  conceivable  manner  countenances  it." 

Is  it  to  be  supposed  that  Mr.  Brownsou  was  ignorant  of 
these  facts?  Or  was  he  acting  on  the  principle,  that  a  lie 
for  ecclesiastical  utility  is  both  defensible  and  meritorious? 
If  the  latter,  he  is  a  proficient  in  this  kind  of  morality. 


TESTIMONY   ADDUCED.  67 


POPE  INNOCENT  III.  AND  A  GENERAL  COUNCIL. 

But  let  us  go  back  a  little  farther,  and  we  come  to 
another  of  the  Innocents,  who  seem  to  have  delighted  to 
exhibit  the  highest  possible  contrast  between  their  name 
and  their  deeds.  We  come  to  Innocent  III.  Let  us  listen 
to  him,  for  in  his  days  the  Papal  corporation  was  at  the 
summit  of  its  power  ;  and  if  it  had  any  ideas  of  fidelity  or 
mercy  towards  those  weak  and  defenceless  Christians 
whom  they  stigmatized  as  heretics,  then  it  ought  to  have 
developed  itself.  Hear  him,  then  :  "  Whoever  are  bound 
to  those  who  have  manifestly  fallen  into  heresy  by  any 
compact,  confirmed  by  any  degree  of  strength  whatever, 
let  them  know  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  duty  of 
fidelity,  homage,  and  all  kinds  of  obedience  to  them." 

These  are  the  words  of  Innocent ;  and  from  his  decree 
the  principle  passed  into  the  canon  law,  from  which  I  have 
already  quoted  it,  and  where  it  still  stands  ;  so  that  it 
has  not  only  the  authority  of  Innocent,  but  of  all  the 
popes  who  have  sanctioned  the  canon  law. 

Nor  is  this  all :  the  fourth  council  of  the  Lateran,  1215, 
representing  the  whole  of  Christendom,  has  sanctioned 
the  same  principle.  Of  this  council  Innocent  III.  was  the 
lord  and  life  ;  they  did  but  register  his  decisions.  Yet 
the  decisions  of  a  pope,  acquiesced  in  by  a  general  coun- 
cil, are  those  of  the  church  ;  and  the  decisions  of  this  coun- 
cil as  to  heretics  have  also  been  transferred  to  the  canon 
law,  as  any  one  may  see  who  will  compare  cap.  iii.  De 
Hereticis  of  the  council  with  Decret.  Greg.,  lib.  v.  tit.  vii. 
capit.  xiii.-xv. 

They  in  the  first  place  anathematize  all  heretics  simply 
on  the  ground  of  heresy ;  and  in  the  whole  chapter  they 
say  nothing  of  any  other  offence.  No  sin  against  morals 


68          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

or  good  order  is  referred  to  ;  the  only  sin  is  heresy. 
Hear  them  :  "  We  excommunicate  and  anathematize  all 
heresy  that  shall  lift  itself  up  against  this  sacred  ortho- 
dox Catholic  faith  which  we  have  already  set  forth.  We 
condemn  all  heresies  by  whatever  names  they  may  be 
called,  fades  quidem  habentes  diversas,  sed  caudas  ad  in- 
vicem  colligatas,  quia  de  vanitate  communicant  in  idipsum." 
I  give  the  elegant  Latin  of  Innocent  and  the  council  in 
part,  that  all  may  judge  of  the  translation.  It  means, 
"  Having  faces  diverse,  but  tails  tied  together,  because  in 
their  vain  conceptions  they  hold  to  the  same  thing  in 
essence  —  i.  e.,  the  condemned  heretics  in  aspect  are  vari- 
ous, but  agree  in  the  belief  of  radical  error."  The  coun- 
cil then  proceeds  to  the  annihilation  of  all  their  rights 
by  consigning  them  to  death,  and  then  also  to  annihilate 
the  rights  of  their  defenders,  or  friends,  by  cutting  every 
tie  by  which  they  are  bound  to  human  society  unless  they 
assail  the  heretics,  and  by  laying  them  open  to  every 
possible  aggression  and  insult,  even  if  they  are  not  cut  off 
by  a  cruel  and  violent  death. 

"  Let  all  the  secular  powers  be  led,  and  if  necessary 
forced  by  ecclesiastical  censure,  to  take  an  oath  in  public 
for  the  defence  of  the  faith,  swearing  to  exert  themselves 
to  exterminate  from  the  countries  subject  to  their  jurisdic- 
tion all  the  heretics  designated  by  the  church.  Ea«h 
person,  when  he  has  received  any  authority,  whether  spir- 
itual or  temporal,  shall  be  bound  to  take  this  oath. 
Should  any  temporal  lord,  when  warned  by  the  church, 
neglect  to  purge  his  country  of  the  stain  of  heresy,  let 
him  be  excommunicated  by  the  archbishop  and  the  pro- 
vincial bishops ;  and,  should  he  refuse  to  give  satisfaction 
within  the  year,  let  advice  be  given  of  it  to  the  sovereign 
pontiff,  in  order  that  he  may  free  the  said  lord's  vassals 
from  their  oath  of  fidelity  and  give  his  lands  to  Catholics, 
in  order  that  they  may  possess  them  without  any  contra- 
diction and  maintain  them  in  the  purity  of  the  faith,  after 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  69 

having  exterminated  the  heretics.  Catholics  who  shall 
take  the  cross  to  exterminate  heretics  shall  enjoy  the  same 
indulgences  and  the  same  holy  privilege  as  they  who 
fight  the  infidels.  He  who  listens  to  unbelievers,  receives, 
defends,  and  aids  them,  is  excommunicated  like  them,  and, 
after  a  year  has  revolved,  becomes  infamous  ipso  jure.  He 
cannot  from  that  moment  be  called  to  public  employments 
or  councils  ;  he  cannot  rote  for  the  election  of  inquisitors 
or  councillors  ;  he  cannot  even  be  admitted  as  a  witness  ; 
he  loses  all  faculty  of  acting  as  witness  to  a  will,  or  of 
accepting  an  inheritance  or  legacy.  No  person  shall  be 
bound  to  appear  before  a  court  of  law  at  his  suit  for  any 
affair  whatever ;  but  he  shall  be  forced  to  appear  at  the 
demand  of  every  one.  Should  he  -be  a  judge,  his  sen- 
tences shall  not  have  any  force,  and  no  suit  can  legally  be 
brought  before  his  tribunal ;  if  an  advocate,  he  shall  not 
be  permitted  to  defend  :  if  a  notary,  the  acts  which  he 
passes  shall  be  of  no  value,  and  they  shall  be  condemned 
with  him  who  drew  them.  *  *  *  All  that  shall  not  fly 
those  whom  the  church  shall  have  thus  noted  shall  also  be 
excommunicated  :  priests  are  not  to  administer  to  them 
the  holy  sacraments,  or  give  them  ecclesiastical  burial,  or 
receive  their  gifts  and  offerings,  under  pain  of  depo- 
sition." 

All  this  and  more  still  stands  in  full  force  in  the  records 
of  the  fourth  Lateran  council  and  in  the  canon  law  of 
Home.  And  yet  Mr.  Brownson  has  the  assurance  to  tell 
us  that  it  is  no  part  of  Romanism. 

Her  more  general  maxim,  that  no  oath  contrary  to  ec- 
clesiastical utility  is  binding,  I  shall  now  proceed  to  con- 
sider. 

THE    LAW    OF    ECCLESIASTICAL   UTILITY.  —  INNOCENT    III.— 
ALEXANDER  III.— THIRD  LATERAN  COUNCIL.- 

We  have  considered  some  of  the  evidence  furnished  by 
popes,  general  councils,  and  the  canon  law,  that  Romanism 
did  adopt  and  sanction,  both  in  theory  and  practice,  that 


70          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics.  "We  have  seen,  too, 
in  the  case  of  John  Huss  and  the  Waldenses,  that  mere 
doctrinal  correctness  and  exemplary  piety  were  no  defence 
against  the  charge  of  heresy,  if  the  authority  of  the  pope 
and  the  Roman  corporation  were  denied.  This  arrogant 
and  usurping  corporation  has,  in  all  ages,  made  obedience 
to  themselves  the  chief  test  of  orthodoxy.  Give  them 
supreme  power  to  rule  and  tax  the  Christian  world,  and 
all  is  well,  even  though  the  clergy  shall  be  a  disgrace  to 
the  name  of  God  and  a  scandal  to  the  civilized  world. 
This  is  the  key  to  the  unspeakable  bitterness  and  cruelty 
with  which  that  corporation  has  hunted  down  heretics 
from  age  to  age.  They  have  arrogated  to  themselves  the 
place  of  God  upon  earth,  and  made  disobedience  to  their 
authority  equivalent  to  high  treason  against  God,  and 
have  treated  it  as  a  crime  so  enormous  as  to  forfeit  every 
right,  and  justify  every  kind  of  violence  and  cruelty  in 
its  extermination.  The  fundamental  element,  therefore, 
in  this  system,  is  an  exaggeration  of  the  importance  of  the 
Romish  corporation  above  all  other  interests  in  the  uni- 
verse, be  they  those  of  God  or  man.  God  has  never,  even 
for  the  highest  sins  against  himself,  authorized  a  violation 
of  faith  ;  no,  not  even  to  his  bitterest  enemies.  But  a  re- 
bellion against  the  Pope  and  Bishops  of  Rome  is  a  sin  that 
cannot  be  forgiven  ;  and  to  him  who  is  guilty  of  it,  the 
most  solemn  oaths,  vows,  and  covenants  are  no  defence. 
Pope  Urban  tells  us  they  must  be  regarded  as  not  in  ex- 
istence. Nothing  must  be  allowed  to  shield  the  guilty 
rebel  from  the  bloody  vengeance  of  Rome.  Such  is  the 
real  philosophy  of  this  maxim  of  that  abandoned  and 
profligate  corporation. 

But  the  same  cause  that  led  to  this  specific  principle 
would  lead,  of  necessity,  to  a  principle  still  more  general ; 
i.  e.,  that  no  oath  contrary  to  ecclesiastical  utility  is  of 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  71 

any  force  ;  that  is,  all  principles  of  truth  and  integrity  in 
the  universe  are  of  less  importance  than  the  interests  of 
the  Romish  corporation.  Moreover,  of  what  these  inter- 
ests demand,  that  corporation  is  the  only  judge.  That 
this  maxim,  also,  has  been  adopted  and  practised  on  by 
that  corporation,  there  is  evidence  ample  and  explicit. 

The  principle  is  laid  down  in  express  terms  in  the  canon 
law,  Decret.  Greg.,  lib.  ii.  tit.  xxiv.  cap.  xxvii. :  "  Juramen- 
tum  contra  utUitatem  ecclesiasticam  prcestitum  non  tenet." 
"  An  oath  taken  contrary  to  ECCLESIASTICAL  UTILITY  is  not 
binding."  This  is  the  general  principle,  as  stated  in  the 
caption  of  the  canon.  In  the  body  the  principle  is  thus 
expressed  :  " Non  j uramenta  sed  perjuria  potius  sunt  dicenda, 
qiiae,  contra  utUitatem  ecclesiasticam  adtentantur."  "  Oaths 
taken  contrary  to  ecclesiastical  utility  are  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  oaths,  but  perjuries."  This  part  of  the  canon 
law  is  taken  from  the  decisions  of  the  notorious  Innocent 
III.,  the  same  who  first  laid  down  in  scientific  form  the 
detestable  maxim,  that  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics. 
Still,  however,  he  is  not  entitled  to  the  infamy  of  origi- 
nating the  maxim  in  its  present  form.  This  infamy  prop- 
erly belongs  to  the  third  Lateran  council,  under  Alexander 
III.  -  It  there  occurs  in  this  form  :  "Non  enim  dicenda  sunt 
juramenta  sed  potius  perjuria,  qua  contra  utUitatem  ecclesias- 
ticam, et  sanctorum  patrum  veniunt  institua."  "  Those  oaths 
which  operate  against  ecclesiastical  utility  and  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  holy  fathers  are  not  to  be  called  oaths,  but 
rather  perjuries."  Here,  then,  there  is  a  concurrence  of  a 
general  council,  the  decrees  of  Innocent  III.,  and  the  au- 
thority of  all  the  popes  who  have  sanctioned  the  canon 
law,  in  establishing  this  as  a  maxim  of  the  Romish  corpo- 
ration. And,  inasmuch  as  they  are  the  only  judges  of 
what  ecclesiastical  utility  is,  this  principle  gives  them  full 


72         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

power  to  dissolve  all  oaths  of  every  kind  which  they 
deem  inconsistent  with  their  own  interests. 

A  principle  more  thoroughly  immoral  and  profligate 
than  this  cannot  be  conceived.  But  it  was  not  one  whit 
more  immoral  and  profligate  than  the  practice  to  which 
it  gave  rise.  Hallam  remarks,  with  no  less  truth  than 
severity,  that  "  this  maxim  gave  the  most  unlimited  priv- 
ilege to  the  popes  of  breaking  all  faith  of  treaties  which 
thwarted  their  interest  or  passion  —  a  privilege  which 
they  continually  exercised." 


HISTORICAL  ILLUSTRATIONS.— THOMAS  A  BECKET. 

Let  us,  then,  for  a  commentary  on  this  principle,  turn  to 
the  page  of  history.  During  the  pontificate  of  this  same 
Alexander  III.,  Henry  II.,  of  England,  established,  at  the 
council  of  Clarendon,  certain  ordinances  designed  to  de- 
fend the  rights  of  the  king  and  civil  powers  of  England 
over  the  clergy,  against  the  arrogant  invasions  of  the  Pa- 
pacy. Thomas  a  Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  sol- 
emnly accepted  and  signed  these  ;  but  the  pope  decided 
that  they  were  against  "ecclesiastical  utility."  Becket 
forthwith  professed  sorrow  for  his  oath  to  the  pope,  and 
the  pope  absolved  him  from  it.  What  the  meaning  of  ec- 
clesiastical utility  is  in  this  case,  in  the  opinion  of  Alex- 
ander III.,  the  lord  of  the  third  Lateran  council,  is  per- 
fectly plain.  It  is  the  right  to  exempt  his  bishops  and 
clergy  from  the  control  of  the  civil  government  under 
which  they  live,  in  a  manner  which  not  an  existing  gov- 
ernment on  earth  will  now  allow.  The  ordinances  of 
Henry  II.  were  right.  The  oath  of  Thomas  a  Becket  was 
not  in  opposition  to  the  law  of  God,  but  in  strict  accord- 


%  TESTIMONY   ADDUCED.  73 

ance  with  it  ;  for  God  commands  ecclesiastics,  as  well  as 
others,  to  be  subject  to  the  laws  of  their  legitimate  civil 
rulers.  The  pope,  therefore,  authorized  and  required  of 
Becket  perjury ;  and  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  did 
perjure  himself  out  of  a  regard  to  ecclesiastical  utility ; 
that  is,  the  ambitious  plans  of  the  pope. 


POPE  PASCAL  II. 

But  in  doing  this  he  followed  illustrious  precedents. 
Pope  Pascal  II.  carried  on  a  long  conflict  with  Henry  V. 
on  the  subject  of  investitures.  At  last  Henry  took  him 
captive,  and  would  not  release  him  till  he  and  sixteen  car- 
dinals signed  a  treaty,  by  which  he  guarantied  to  the  em- 
peror the  right  of  investiture,  provided  he  mingled  no 
simony  with  it.  He  also  crowned  the  emperor,  and  sol- 
emnly bound  himself  never  to  excommunicate  him.  The 
oath  was  taken  in  the  most  solemn  form  conceivable.  The 
communion  was  celebrated  at  the  time  of  the  coronation. 
When  the  host  was  broken,  the  pope,  taking  a  part,  and 
giving  a  part  to  the  emperor,  said,  "  As  this  part  of  the 
living  body  is  divided,  so  let  him  be  divided  from  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  and  of  God  who  shall  attempt  to  vio- 
late this  covenant."  Nor  was  this  all :  the  pope,  after  he 
had  regained  his  liberty,  renewed  the  same  oath.  (See  Dau- 
nou,  Court  of  Rome,  p.  98.)  Here,  then,  we  have  the  head 
of  the  church  bound  by  the  most  solemn  oath  that  the 
mind  of  man  can  conceive.  Moreover,  all  that  the  pope 
had  promised  was  to  give  up  usurped  powers,  to  which  he 
never  had  the  slightest  legal  claim,  and  which  had  been 
secured  only  by  falsehood  and  forgery.  Without  an  oath 
it  was  his  duty  to  renounce  these  usurped  powers,  much 
7 


74         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

more  with  one  so  solemnly  sanctioned  over  the  body  ol 
Christ. 

But  before  "ecclesiastical  utility"  what  can  stand? 
The  most  solemn  oaths,  touched  by  this  magic  wand,  be- 
eome  a  rope  of  sand.  The  oath  of  Pascal  brought  upon 
aim  the  bitter  censures  of  the  Roman  clergy.  Hear,  now, 
the  narrative  of  the  sequel,  from  the  powerful  and  justly 
earcastic  pen  of  a  Roman  Catholic  :  "Now,  the  head  of 
the  church  suffers  himself  to  be  accused  of  double  dealing. 
He  retires  to  Terracina  to  weep  over  his  sin.  He  suffers 
the  cardinals  to  annul  his  decrees  and  promises.  He  is 
going  (so  he  says)  to  abdicate  the  tiara.  Happily  this 
purpose  is  opposed  ;  and  such  is  the  docility  of  the  pon- 
tiff, that  he  consents  with  resignation  to  retain  the  power, 
so  that  he  may  have  the  opportunity  to  make  a  better  use 
of  it.  Finally,  in  a  council,  he  revoked  the  treaty  which 
he  had  the  misfortune  to  subscribe.  Nevertheless  he  re- 
fuses personally  to  excommunicate  Henry  V.,  so  great,  even 
yet,  were  his  scruples  to  violate  an  engagement.  The 
cardinals,  —  they  pronounced  this  anathema  in  the  presence 
of  Pascal."  —  Daunou,  p.  99. 

The  records  of  the  council  in  Binius  show  that  Pascal 
submitted  all  his  proceedings  to  the  council  and  that  they 
absolved  him  from  his  oath.  "We  all,"  say  they,  "in 
this  sacred  council,  assembled  with  our  lord  the  pope,  in 
accordance  with  the  decision  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  condemn 
it  (i.  e.,  the  covenant)  with  canonical  censure  and  by  ec- 
clesiastical authority.  We  decide  that  it  is  null  and  void. 
We  annihilate  its  binding  force  ;  and,  that  it  may  be  utter- 
ly destitute  of  authority  and  power,  we  utterly  excommu- 
nicate (!)  it." 

"  When  this  result  was  read,  the  whole  council  cried 
out,  Amen !  Amen !  So  be  it !  so  be  it ! "  —  Binius,  vol.  iii. 
part  ii.  p.  445. 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  75 

What  oath  now  can  stand  before  such  principles  of  per- 
jury ?  If  the  highest  ecclesiastic  swears  a  solemn  oath  to 
his  king,  the  pope  can  absolve  him  from  it.  If  the  pope 
swears  a  solemn  oath  to  an  emperor,  he  has  only  to  call  a 
council,  and  they  absolve  him  from  it.  In  blasphemous 
mockery  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  they  dissolve  and  excommu- 
nicate the  oath  by  his  divine  authority. 


THE  PROCESS  SIMPLIFIED.  — PAUL  IV.  AND  OTHERS. 

But  at  last  it  was  discovered  that  this  formality  of  a 
council  was  needless.  The  pope  found  out  that  he  not 
only  had  the  authority  to  absolve  others  from  their  oaths, 
but  that  he  had  also  full  authority  to  absolve  himself  from 
any  oath  whatever.  This  greatly  simplified  the  whole 
business.  Take  an  example  from  Edgar,  Variations,  p. 
249  :  "Paul  IV.,  in  1555.  absolved  himself  from  an  oath 
which  he  had  taken  in  the  conclave.  His  holiness  had 
sworn  to  make  only  four  cardinals,  but  violated  his  obli- 
gation. His  supremacy  declared  that  the  pontiff  could 
not  be  bound,  or  his  authority  limited,  even  by  an  oath.  The 
contrary  he  characterizes  '  as  a  manifest  heresy.'  "  (Paolo, 
ii.  xxvii.)  Indeed,  so  common  was  it  to  violate  solemn  oaths 
taken  in  conclave  among  the  cardinals  before  election, 
binding  whoever  was  elected  pope  to  comply  with  certain 
conditions,  that  it  became  the  regular  course  of  events. 
Indeed,  I  am  not  aware  that  any  pope  was  ever  guilty,  in 
such  circumstances,  of  the  heresy  of  feeling  himself  bound 
by  the  most  solemn  oath  that  it  is  possible  to  take. 

Of  course  the  principle  of  ecclesiastical  utility  was  ex- 
tended to  all  other  oaths  that  were  deemed  injurious  to 
the  interests  of  the  Romish  corporation.  Edgar,  p.  251, 
illustrates  this  use  of  the  principle  :  "  Clement,  in  1526, 


76          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

absolved  Francis  II.,  the  French  king,  from  a  treaty  which 
he  had  formed  in  Spain.  The  Emperor  of  Germany  had 
taken  his  Christian  majesty  a  prisoner  in  the  battle  of 
Pavia  and  carried  him  to  Madrid.  The  conditions  of  his 
engagement,  which  were  disadvantageous,  Francis  con- 
firmed by  an  oath.  This  engagement,  however,  the  pon- 
tiff, by  his  apostolic  power,  soon  dissolved,  for  the  purpose 
of  gaining  the  French  king  as  an  ally  in  a  holy  confed- 
eracy which  his  infallibility  had  organized  against  the 
German  emperor."  Before  "  ecclesiastical  utility "  the 
power  of  a  solemn  oath,  not  to  a  heretic,  but  to  a  Cath- 
olic king,  melted  away. 

Of  course  a  Mahometan  sultan  could  expect  no  better 
treatment.  Ladislaus,  King  of  Hungary,  formed  a  treaty 
with  the  Sultan  Amurath,  and  the  king  and  sultan  con- 
firmed it  by  mutual  oaths  on  the  Gospels  and  the  Koran. 
Eugenius  IV.,  by  his  legate  Julian,  declared  it  in  the  high- 
est degree  criminal  to  observe  an  oath  so  much  opposed  to 
"  ecclesiastical  utility."  "  I  absolve  you,"  said  the  legate, 
"  from  perjury,  and  sanctify  your  arms."  "  The  sultan,  it 
is  said,  displayed  a  copy  of  the  violated  treaty  in  the  front 
of  battle,  implored  the  protection  of  the  God  of  truth,  and 
called  aloud  on  the  prophet  Jesus  to  avenge  the  mockery 
of  his  religion  and  authority."  (Edgar,  p.  251.)  The  re- 
sult was  the  defeat  and  death  of  Ladislaus.  When  all  liars 
are  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire,  where  will  Eugenius,  the 
teacher  of  perjury,  be  found  ? 

Take  another  instance  from  Hallam,  Middle  Ages,  p.  293, 
note.  Piccininio,  the  famous  condottiere  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  had  promised  not  to  attack  Francis  Sforza,  at 
that  time  at  war  with  the  pope.  Eugenius  IV.  (the  same 
excellent  person  who  had  annulled  the  compactata  with  the 
Hussites,  releasing  those  who  had  sworn  to  them,  and  who 
afterwards  made  the  King  of  Hungary  break  his  treaty 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  77 

with  Amurath  II.)  absolves  him  from  his  promise,  on  the 
express  ground  that  a  treaty  disadvantageous  to  the 
church  ought  not  to  be  kept. 

Of  course,  if  "  ecclesiastical  utility "  can  dissolve  oaths 
of  popes,  archbishops,  and  kings,  it  can  dissolve  all  oaths 
of  allegiance,  not  merely  to  heretical  rulers,  but  to  all 
who  act  against  the  ambition,  pride,  or  passions  of  the 
pope. 

On  this  ground,  Gregory  VII.,  in  the  third  Roman  coun- 
cil, excommunicated  Henry  IV.,  and  dissolved  all  oaths 
of  allegiance  between  him  and  his  subjects.  His  words 
are  :  "  I  absolve  all  Christians  from  the  obligations  of  the 
oath  which  they  have  taken  or  shall  take  to  him,  and  I 
forbid  any  one  to  obey  him  as  king."  The  same  thing  was 
repeated  in  the  seventh  Roman  council.  Nor  has  the 
church  of  Rome  ever  condemned  these  proceedings.  Nay, 
Paul  V.  canonized  Gregory  VII.,  and  inserted  an  office  in 
the  Roman  breviary  praising  his  holiness  "  for  freeing  the 
Emperor  Henry's  subjects  from  the  oath  of  fidelity."  Thus 
the  praise  of  the  doctrine  of  perjury  was  solemnly  intro- 
duced into  the  worship  of  the  Romish  church.  Alexander, 
Clement,  and  Benedict  sanctioned  the  transactions  of 
Paul. 

The  same  doctrine  was  sanctioned  by  the  coincident  ac- 
tion of  the  first  general  council  of  Lyons,  and  the  pope, 
the  highest  authority  in  the  Romish  church.  Innocent 
IV.,  in  the  presence  of  the  sacred  council,  pronounced 
sentence  of  deposition  on  Frederic  II.,  and  declared  all 
his  subjects  absolved  from  their  oaths  of  allegiance ;  for- 
bade any  to  obey  or  aid  him  as  emperor  or  king  ;  and  de- 
clared that  all  who  should  be  guilty  of  obeying  or  aiding 
him  should,  ipso  facto,  be  excommunicated,  and  directed 
the  electors  to  choose  a  successor.  But  there  is  not  room 
to  give  in  detail  the  particulars  and  the  results  of  this 


78          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

abominable  transaction.  Nor  have  I  designed  to  detail 
all  the  cases  in  which  the  same  principles  were  reduced  to 
practice  by  the  popes  and  councils  from  the  time  of  Greg- 
ory VII.  to  Pius  VII.'  Time  would  fail  me  to  complete 
such  an  enumeration.  It  would  present  at  least  twenty 
cases  of  teaching  perjury  on  the  great  scale,  by  professing 
to  dissolve  national  oaths.  But  the  facts  are  too  noto- 
rious to  need  more  than  a  general  reference. 


THE  FINAL  ISSUE. 

What,  then,  will  Mr.  Brownson  say  ?  Will  he  admit 
that  the  popes  and  general  councils  of  the  Romish  church 
did,  in  the  name  of  God,  mislead  the  whole  world  for 
centuries  on  the  most  fundamental  point  of  morals  and 
religion  ?  or  will  he  defend  their  doctrine  ?  One  or  the 
other  he  must  do  ;  for  the  facts  admit  of  no  denial. 

Is  the  pope  indeed  the  vicar  of  God  ?  Does  he,  accord- 
ing to  the  canon  law,  "  fill  the  place,  not  of  a  mere  man, 
but  of  the  true  God  on  earth  "  ?  ("  Non  puri  hominis  sed 
veri  Dei  vicem  gerit  in  terris ; "  Decret.  Greg.,  lib.  i.  tit.  vii. 
cap.  iii.)  Then  let  Mr.  Brownson  listen  to  the  voice  of 
Gregory  as  he  inveighs  "against  the  insanity  of  those  who 
with  impious  mouth  prate  that  the  authority  of  the  sacred 
and  apostolic  see  cannot  absolve  any  one  from  his  oath  of 
fidelity."  ("  Contra  illorum  insaniam,  qui,  nefando  ore, 
garriunt  auctoritatem  sanctae  et  apostolicas  sedis  non  po- 
tuisse  quemquam  a  sacramento  fidelitatis  ejus  absolvere.") 
Let  him  listen  to  the  voice  of  Innocent  X.  as  he  declares 
that  "  the  Roman  pontiff  can  invalidate  civil  contracts, 
promises,'  or  oaths  made  by  Catholics  to  heretics,  and  that 
simply  because  they  are  heretics  ;  "  and  "  that  to  deny  the 
proposition  is  heresy  and  an  attack  upon  the  pontifical 


TESTIMONY  ADDUCED.  79 

authority  in  questions  relating  to  the  faith,  deserving  of 
the  severest  punishment."  Let  him  listen  to  the  voice  of 
Gregory  IX.,  the  father  of  the  five  books  of  decretals,  as 
he  declares  that  "  none  should  keep  faith  with  the  person 
who  opposes  God  and  the  saints."  Let  him,  in  addition  to 
this,  faithfully  study  the  canon  law  of  his  own  church  and 
the  decrees  of  her  general  councils,  and  then  reconcile 
his  own  statements  with  a  due  regard  to  historical  truth 
if  he  can.  If  he  was  so  utterly  ignorant  of  the  history 
and  principles  of  his  own  church  as  to  write  what  he  did 
in  sincerity,  then  an  intelligent  public  can  judge  how  much 
confidence  ought  to  be  reposed  in  his  other  historical 
statements.  If  he  did  understand  the  history  and  princi- 
ples of  his  own  church,  then  either  he  adopts  the  maxim, 
that  no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics,  as  an  excuse  for 
his  assertions,  or  else  he  has  dared  to  make  them  without 
even  the  shadow  of  an  excuse. 


MORAL  EFFECTS  OF  SUCH  PRINCIPLES. 

The  effects  on  the  morals  of  the  community  of  such 
principles  and  such  examples  as  I  have  described  were 
such  as  might  have  been  expected.  When  seventeen  of 
the  heads  of  the  church  were  perjurers,  and  popes  and 
councils  taught  perjury  on  principle,  the  hope  of  producing 
in  the  common  mind  a  sacred  regard  for  truth  would  be 
just  about  as  reasonable  as  to  suppose  that  the  example 
of  the  orgies  of  Venus  would  produce  chastity,  or  the 
worship  of  Bacchus  temperance. 

Of  the  eleventh  century  Guilelmus  says,  "Faith  was  not 
found  on  earth.  All  flesh  had  corrupted  their  way.  Jus- 
tice, equity,  virtue,  sobriety,  and  the  fear  of  God  perished, 
and  were  succeeded  by  violence,  fraud,  circumveTition, 


80         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

stratagem."  In  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  ac- 
cording to  Morlaix,  "Piety  and  religion  seemed  to  bid 
adieu  to  man  ;  and  for  these  were  substituted  treachery, 
fraud,  impurity,  rapine,  schism,  quarrels,  war,  and  assas- 
sination." St.  Bernard  speaks  of  "perjury"  as  one  of  the 
leading  characteristics  of  the  degenerate  ecclesiastics  of 
his  day.  In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries  the 
same  state  of  things  is  found.  Petrarch  laments  the 
"  general  destruction  in  his  day  of  all  integrity,  justice,  hon- 
esty, and  fear  of  God."  Mariana  says,  "  The  most  dreadful 
outrages,  perfidy  and  treason,  were  better  recompensed 
than  the  brightest  virtue.  THE  WICKEDNESS  OF  THE  PON- 
TIFF DESCENDED  TO  THE  PEOPLE."  And  what  else  could 
we  expect  ?  Fordun  says,  "  Inferiors  devoted  themselves 
to  malediction  and  perjury.  Superiors  studied  to  oppress 
their  underlings  in  every  possible  manner."  Antonius,  in 
his  oration  before  the  council  of  Trent,  says,  speaking  of 
the  state  of  the  community  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
"  Usury,  fraud,  &c.,  enjoyed  distinction  :  worldly  and  per- 
verse men,  encouraged  in  their  wickedness,  boasted  of 
their  villany."  Let  it  be  well  noted  that  none  of  this  is 
Protestant  testimony.  Nothing  can  be  more  full  and  ex- 
plicit than  the  testimony  of  Romanist  writers  on  this 
point.  I  have  given  but  a  small  specimen  from  abundant 
stores. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

APPEAL  FOR  JUDGMENT  TO  ALL  TRUE  AMERICANS. 

A  PART  of  the  evidence  which  it  was  ray  purpose  to 
adduce  has  been  presented.  Before  I  proceed  to  make 
additional  statements,  I  ask  leave  to  say  a  few  words  to 
my  Protestant  fellow-countrymen  throughout  this  nation. 

In  the  providence  of  God,  you  are  placed  in  circum- 
stances of  great  interest  and  responsibility.  You  are 
called  on  to  judge  of  the  character  of  the  Papal  corpora- 
tion, not  as  a  theme  of  abstract  speculation,  not  as  a  mere 
historical  question,  but  as  a  matter  of  individual  and  per- 
sonal as  well  as  of  general  interest.  You  have  sought 
no  war  with  the  Papacy  ;  but  the  Papacy  has  declared  war 
on  you  and  on  your  children.  This  nation,  as  a  Protes- 
tant nation,  has  commenced  an  attack  upon  no  religious 
system,  but  has  proclaimed  equal  rights  to  all ;  but  upon 
us,  as  a  Protestant  nation,  the  Papal  corporation  and  their 
agents  have  commenced  an  attack. 

They  declare  that  the  territory  which  we  occupy  be- 
longs to  them  and  to  their  lord  the  pope.  They  declare 
that  we  Protestants  have  invaded  their  territory,  but  that 
they  have  never  relinquished  their  claims  to  it,  but  intend 
yet  to  make  them  good. 

How  great  their  power  may  be  to  execute  these 
schemes  this  is  not  the  place  to  consider.  If  we  may 

(81) 


82  THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

trust  their  own  statements,  they  regard  it  as  adequate  and 
their  success  as  sure. 

One  thing,  at  least,  is  certain  —  the  system  still  wields 
immense  power  throughout  the  world  ;  and  as  it  is  or- 
ganized by  a  permanent  central  power,  sustained  by  the 
society  of  the  Jesuits  and  other  extensive  combinations,  it 
has  greatly  the  advantage  over  unorganized  resistance,  or 
resistance  of  men  not  aware  of  the  depth  of  its  principles 
of  perfidy  and  treachery. 

There  is,  therefore,  no  more  important  point  in  this 
whole  controversy  than  that  which  meets  you  here. 
Charges  have  been  laid  before  you  and  evidence  adduced  ; 
and  now  you  are  called  on  to  give  judgment.  Linked  in 
with  this  evidence  is  proof  of  the  use  made  of  such  prin- 
ciples of  treachery  in  the  work  of  persecution  and  blood- 
shed. 

From  a  regard  to  our  national  welfare,  you  are  called 
on,  then,  to  judge  fairly,  but  fearlessly  and  thoroughly,  of 
the  true  character  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  this 
corporation.  Nor  is  this  all.  The  interests  of  humanity, 
and  the  dishonor  and  wrongs  of  the  martyrs  of  past  ages, 
equally  demand  such  a  judgment  from  you  ;  and  to  this 
work  you  are  summoned  by  the  providence  of  God. 

You  occupy,  therefore,  a  station  of  peculiar  dignity 
and  of  immense  responsibility.  A  judgment  is  demanded 
of  you,  based  upon  the  highest  principles  of  historical 
truth  and  justice,  and  invested  with  the  highest  power  of 
moral  emotion. 

And  now  I  ask,  in  view  of  the  evidence  adduced,  Is  it 
not  manifest  that  the  Romish  corporation  do  avowedly 
place  their  own  interests,  as  a  corporation,  above  all  other 
interests  whatever?  Do  they  not  declare  that  all  who 
dissent  from  their  views  and  renounce  their  authority  are 


APPEAL  FOR  JUDGMENT  TO  ALL  TRUE  AMERICANS.   83 

by  that  act  at  once  disfranchised  ot  all  their  rights  ?  All 
obligations  of  veracity  and  fidelity  towards  them  cease. 
Their  rights  of  protection  and  defence  are  vacated.  They 
are  at  once  outlawed  and  intestate.  Nay,  more  :  to  massacre 
and  exterminate  them  is  a  duty. 

Are  not  these  things  so,  according  to  the  constitutional 
law  of  this  corporation  ?  And  is  it  not  a  dictate  of  justice, 
as  well  as  of  common  sense,  to  judge  of  such  a  corporation 
by  its  constitutional  law,  and  not  by  the  irresponsible  state- 
ments of  interested  apologists  ? 

Moreover,  have  not  these  principles  been  imbodied  in 
facts  on  a  most  stupendous  scale  for  at  least  seven  cen- 
turies ?  and  have  not  leagues,  and  bonds,  and  covenants 
been  broken  ?  Have  not  fraud  and  delusion  been  employed, 
and  has  not  the  blood  of  millions  been  shed,  under  the  in- 
fluence of  these  principles  ? 

Is  not  this  corporation,  therefore,  responsible  this  day 
before  God  and  before  man  for  these  principles  and  for 
their  results  ?  Do  you  not  judge  of  any  national  admin- 
istration, whether  whig  or  democratic,  by  their  avowed 
principles  and  measures  as  carried  out  in  fact,  and  not  by 
the  plausible  statements  of  interested  partisans  here  and 
there  ?  Ought  you  not  to  judge  of  this  corporation  on 
the  same  principle  ?  And  if  you  thus  judge  it,  can  you 
come  to  any  other  conclusion  than  that  it  is  a  conspiracy 
against  the  interests,  and  rights,  and  even  the  lives  of  all 
who  disown  their  sway,  which  no  principles  of  veracity  or 
integrity  can  bind  ? 

If  the  voice  of  blood  could  cry  from  the  ground,  if  the 
slaughtered  millions  who  have  been  disfranchised  by  them, 
and  who  have  fallen  on  the  plains  of  France,  Spain,  Holland, 
and  northern  Italy,  or  have  closed  their  lives  in  dungeons 
or  in  the  autos  dafe  of  the  Inquisition,  could  call  aloud  to 
you,  they  would  say, "  Be  not  deceived  :  we  know  by  sad  and 


84  THE  PAPAL   CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

"bloody  experience  the  reality  and  the  relentless  power  of 
those  principles  in  the  hands  of  that  despotism  on  which, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  you  are  now  called  to  sit  in 
iudgment.  Awake,  then,  from  all  delusions,  and,  at  the  call 
of  divine  Providence,  exercise  righteous  judgment  for  God 
and  for  humanity.  Be  not  outwitted.  Let  no  plausible 
pretences  or  smooth  evasions  turn  you  aside  from  a  deep 
and  thorough  scrutiny  of  the  facts  of  the  case." 

Consider,  then,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  have  been 
laid  before  you,  not  the  mere  assertions  of  single  in- 
dividuals like  Mr.  Brownson  and  Charles  Butler,  nor  of 
scholastic  bodies  devoid  of  authority  like  the  foreign 
universities,  nor  of  individual  bishops.  There  have  been 
laid  before  you  solemn  and  authentic  decisions  of  the 
highest  and  most  authoritative  bodies  known  in  the  Roman 
world.  The  constitution  of  the  United  States  is  not  more 
a  standard  of  judgment  as  to  the  principles  of  this  nation 
than  are  these  decisions  as  to  the  principles  of  the  RomisL 
system.  Nor  can  any  pope  or  council  hereafter  condemn 
and  rescind  them  as  false.  Such  an  act  would  be  suicidal. 
It  would  be  a  public  confession  that  the  pope  and  a  coun- 
cil are  fallible.  Nay,  more  :  that  they  have  taught  the 
doctrines  of  devils  on  points  of  the  highest  moment.  It 
is,  therefore,  death  to  the  system  to  condemn  and  renounce 
tfiese  decisions  as  false. 

2.  Consider,  also,  that  these  are  only  a  specimen  from  a 
great  storehouse  of  similar  facts.  It  would  be  tedious 
to  adduce  all  the  evidence  that -exists,  especially  in  the 
form  of  Papal  acts,  assuming  and  based  on  these  principles. 
For  long  centuries  they  were  the  established  principles  and 
practice  of  the  Papal  world,  in  connection  with  thek  indred 
doctrine  of  the  persecution  and  slaughter  of  heretics. 
They  were  announced  by  the  greatest  of  the  popes,  acqui- 
esced in  by  bishops,  confirmed  by  general  and  provincial 


APPEAL  FOR  JUDGMENT  TO  ALL  TEUE  AMERICANS.   85 

councils,  and  introduced  into  the  canon  law,  and  carried 
into  effect,  without  remorse  and  without  ecclesiastical 
protest,  for  long  ages. 

3.  Consider  once  more,  and  this  is  a  point  of  the  deep- 
est and  most  thrilling  interest,  that  nothing  but  want  of 
power  prevented  their  thorough  application  to  all  Euro- 
pean Protestants  as  they  were  applied  to  the  Albigenses 
and  the  Waldenses.  Repeated  leagues  and  conspiracies 
of  the  Romish  powers  of  Europe  were  formed,  and  false- 
hood and  treachery  were  unsparingly  used,  to  effect  this 
purpose.  The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  was  the  re- 
sult of  such  a  conspiracy  ;  and  it  was  effected  by  the  use 
of  the  most  detestable  fraud  to  delude  and  entrap  the  too 
confiding  Protestants  of  France. 

A  reconciliation  was  treacherously  proposed  between 
the  Protestants  and  Romanists.  It  was  to  be  inaugurated 
and  confirmed  by  the  marriage  of  Henry,  the  leader  of  the 
Protestants  and  King  of  Navarre,  to  Margaret,  the  sister 
of  Charles  IX.,  the  Popish  King  of  France.  Under  this 
pretext,  multitudes  of  Protestants,  and  Coligny,  their  great 
general,  were  allured  to  Paris.  Such  were  the  assurances 
of  friendship  made  by  Charles,  and  his  mother,  Catharine 
de  Medici,  the  infamous  author  of  the  plot,  that  he  and  all 
the  Protestants  were  thrown  entirely  off  their  guard  and 
led  blindfolded  into  the  toils  of  Popish  malignity  and 
treachery.  Then  followed  scenes  of  horror  unprecedented 
in  the  history  of  man.  At  midnight  the  tocsin  tolled  ;  and 
at  the  signal  the  work  of  slaughter  began.  The  streets 
of  Paris  were  deluged  with  blood.  From  Paris,  as  from 
a  centre,  the  massacre  spread  through  France.  Upon  such 
a  scene  of  infernal  treachery  and  bloodshed  the  angels 
of  God  never  looked  down  before.  A  thrill  of  horror 
pervaded  the  Protestant  world. 

From  the  same  principles  and  conspiracy  came  the  mas- 


86          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

sacres  perpetrated  by  the  Duke  of  Alva  in  the  Nether- 
lands. Hence  came  the  Inquisition  —  hence  the  Spanish 
Armada.  Hence  came  the  plot  to  destroy  the  King  of 
England  and  the  Houses  of  Lords  and  Commons  by  one 
tremendous  explosion  of  gunpowder,  ever  since  known  as 
the  infamous  Gunpowder  Plot. 

4.  Consider  still  more  attentively  the  great  fact,  that  all 
such  acts  of  treachery,  fraud,  and  violence,  outraging  alike 
truth  and  justice,  God  and  man,  were  regarded  by  the 
Pope  and  court  of  Rome  as  the  discharge  of  an  exalted 
Christian  duty.     The  treachery  and  massacre  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew, in  particular,  were  commemorated,  among  other 
religious  services,  by  a  Te  Deum,  as  well  as  by  the  casting 
of  two  medals,  with  inscriptions  commemorative  of  the 
defj$f.     On  one  side  of  one  of  the  medals  was  the  inscrip- 
tion, Virtus  in  rebelles  —  "  Valor  against  rebels."     On  the 
other,  Pietas  excitavit  justitiam — '"Piety  aroused  justice." 
On   another  coin  issued  by  Pope  Gregory  is   seen   an 
angel,  armed  with  a  sword  and  a  cross,  attacking  the  her- 
etics.    Thus  the  pope  gave  the  sanction  of  God  and  his 
angels  to  this  infamous  deed  of  treachery  and  blood. 

5.  Consider  once  more,  that  in  view  of  all  the  preced- 
ing facts,  even  according  to  their  own  doctrines,  the  Rom- 
ish corporation  and  all  who  choose  to  remain  Romanists 
are  irretrievably  committed  to  the  avowal  and  defence  of 
these  principles  and  their  practical  results.     There  is  no 
one  point  which  they  urge  on  us  so  incessantly  as  the  in- 
dispensable necessity  of  this  infallible  corporation  to  set- 
tle the  canon  of  the  Bible  and  the  rest  of  the  rule  of  faith, 
and  then  to  interpret  them  and  promulgate  infallibly  the 
true  doctrines  of  the  church.     This  is,  as  I  have  shown, 
the  central  point,  the  very  life,  of  the  system.     And  now, 
will  they  turn  around  and  repudiate  the  decisions  of  this 
very  infallible  body,  to  whom  they  are  urging  us  to  sub- 


APPEAL  FOR  JUDGMENT  TO  ALL  TRUE  AMERICANS.   87 

mit  in  order  to  escape  endless  perdition  ?  Will  they  con- 
cede the  fallibility  of  their  church  in  a  case  the  most  mo- 
mentous that  the  mind  of  man  can  conceive  ?  A  sacred 
regard  to  truth  is  the  great  bond  of  human  society.  But 
not  only  to  violate  truth,  but  to  do  it  as  a  means  of  mur- 
der, and  that  on  a  scale  of  terrific  magnitude,  is  the  estab- 
lished doctrine  and  practice  of  the  Romish  corporation. 
If,  in  a  case  so  momentous  as  this,  they  have  deluged  the 
nations  with  blood  by  their  false  and  damnable  doctrines, 
then  what  shadow  of  confidence  do  they  deserve  in  any 
other  case  ? 

The  only  logical  course  by  which  any  Romanist  can 
avoid  a  rejection  of  this  corporation  is  to  advocate  and 
defend  the  principles  themselves. 

Yet  such  principles  are  in  thfs  age  so  odious  and  ob- 
noxious, especially  in  Great  Britain  and  in  this  country, 
that  every  effort  has  been  made  to  escape  from  this  po- 
sition. 

To  these  efforts  I  shall  next  call  your  attention. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE  GALLICAN,  OR  FRENCH,  DOCTRINE. 

To  understand  this,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  a  few 
historical  facts.  In  consequence  of  the  extreme  despotism 
and  corruption  of  the  Pope  and  court  of  Rome,  an  effort 
was  made  a  little  before  the  reformation  to  limit  his  power 
and  to  reform  his  court.  At  the  council  of  Constance, 
by  a  solemn  decree,  a  general  council  was  declared  su- 
perior to  the  pope,  and  authorized  to  reform  him  and  his 
court.  Even  the  Romish  world  were  driven  to  this  course 
by  the  extremity  of  his  despotism.  But,  after  the  coun- 
cil rose,  the  centralizing  power  of  the  pope,  operating 
steadily,  baffled  their  efforts ;  and  the  Papal  court  has  ever 
since  repudiated  their  decree. 

After  the  reformation,  Louis  XIV.,  of  France,  the  most 
powerful  monarch  of  the  age,  determined  to  make  another 
effort  to  limit  the  power  of  the  pope.  He  therefore  aimed 
a  blow  at  the  doctrine  of  the  pope's  supremacy  over  kings. 
Up  to  this  time,  that  supremacy,  and  the  consequent  right 
of  deposing  them  and  of  absolving  their  subjects  from 
their  oaths,  had  been  the  firmly-established  doctrine  of  the 
Romish  system.  But,  under  the  influence  of  Louis,  the 
Romish  clergy  of  France,  in  1682,  made  a  declaration,  in 
which,  among  other  things,  they  declared  that  "  kings  and 
sovereigns  are  not  subjected  to  any  ecclesiastical  power 
by  the  order  of  God  in  temporal  things ;  and  their  sub- 

(88) 


THE  GALLICAN,  OB  FRENCH,  DOCTRINE.        89 

jects  cannot  be  released  from  the  obedience  which  they 
owe  them,  nor  absolved  from  their  oath  of  allegiance." 

The  Pope  and  the  court  of  Borne  were,  of  course,  indig- 
nant in  the  extreme.  By  a  multitude  of  writers  they  viru- 
lently assailed  the  declaration,  and  threatened  anathemas 
and  excommunications. 

But  Louis  rallied  his  forces  for  the  defence  of  his  clergy. 
By  an  edict,  he  forbade  all  persons,  secular  and  regular, 
subjects  or  strangers,  throughout  his  dominions,  to  teach 
or  write  any  thing  contrary  to  this  declaration,  and  com- 
manded his  whole  clergy  to  inculcate  and  defend  the  doc- 
trine therein  contained. 

No  doubt  Louis  would  have  been  deposed  and  his  bish- 
ops excommunicated  by  the  pope  had  he  not  feared  to  see 
France  in  revolt  from  him,  after  the  example  of  England. 
He  feared  to  see  Louis  XIV.  walking  in  the  steps  of  Hen- 
ry VIII.  He  therefore  endured  what  he  could  not  pre- 
vent. Yet,  for  some  time,  he  refused  to  send  bulls  of  in- 
stitution to  French  bishops  newly  elected  until  they  wrote 
to  him,  each  for  himself,  protesting  that  the  clergy  of 
France  did  not  intend  to  make  a  decree  of  faith  by  their 
declaration,  and  assuring  him  of  their  profound  submis- 
sion to  the  rights  of  the  holy  chair. 

The  doctrine  of  this  declaration  is  called,  indifferently, 
the  Gallican,  or  the  French,  or  the  Cisalpine,  doctrine. 
That  of  the  court  of  Rome  is  called  the  Italian,  or  Trans- 
alpine, doctrine.  It  is,  in  fact,  the  doctrine  of  the  popes 
of  the  middle  ages.  Of  the  Gallican  doctrine,  the  chief 
defender  was  the  celebrated  Bossuet. 

The  French  Catholic  historians,  Dupin  and  Fleury, 
stood  upon  this  ground.  Hence,  in  their  histories,  they 
are  free  to  expose  and  condemn  to  a  certain  extent  the 
arrogant  encroachments  of  the  pope  on  the  church  as  well 
as  on  the  state.  Hence,  from  their  writings,  Protestants 


90         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

derive  valuable  aid  in  their  warfare  with  the  court  of 
Rome.  But,  for  the  same  reason,  they  are  odious  to  the 
thorough  defenders  of  the  Papal  power. 

All  the  universities  consulted  by  Pitt  also  belonged  to 
the  same  school,  and  were  consulted  for  this  reason. 

Besides  the  divines  and  laymen  of  the  Gallican  school, 
there  are  other  Romanists  in  France  and  elsewhere  who 
repudiate  the  doctrine  of  the  pope's  temporal  supremacy  in 
Italy  in  the  States  of  the  Church.  They  consider  this  as  the 
result  of  a  scheme  of  worldly  ambition,  and  pernicious  in  its 
tendencies  and  results  to  the  spiritual  character  of  the  Pa- 
pacy and  to  all  the  interests  of  civil  society.  Of  this  class 
is  M.  Daunou,  a  learned  French  civilian,  who  has  written 
an  able  history  of  the  court  of  Rome,  designed  to  expose 
the  frauds  and  forgeries  through  which  this  temporal 
power  was  first  gained  and  its  destructive  influence  on  the 
interests  of  Europe.  From  such  writers,  also,  who  still  re- 
gard the  pope  as  properly  the  spiritual  head  of  the  church, 
much  aid  can  be  derived  in  our  warfare  with  the  Papacy. 
But  of  course  such  writers  are  more  hated  by  the  court 
of  Rome  than  even  the  writers  of  the  Gallican  school. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  understand  the  course  of 
events  in  England  and  America  and  the  present  position 
of  the  defenders  of  the  Papal  corporation. 

The  genuine  doctrines  of  that  corporation  are  so  re- 
pugnant to  the  convictions  of  England  and  America,  and 
so  odious  to  every  friend  of  humanity,  that  in  some  way  it 
is  necessary  to  blind  and  delude  the  too  confiding  Protes- 
tants, so  as  to  put  them  off  their  guard  until  the  system 
has  gained  foothold  and  power. 

To  effect  this,  two  courses  have  been  adopted.  The 
first  was  tried  in  England  by  Charles  Butler  and  others  ; 
the  second  in  this  country,  by  Bishops  Kenrick  and 
Hughes. 


THE  GALLICAN,  OR  FRENCH,  DOCTRINE.        91 

But  at  last  the  servants  of  the  court  of  Rome  are  dis- 
covering reasons  for  abandoning  these  modes  of  defence 
and  returning  to  the  genuine  Papal  ground  which  has  been 
set  forth.  This  will  appear  as  we  shall  consider,  in  order, 
the  two  great  evasions  to  which  reference  has  been  made. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

EVASION  OF  CHARLES  BUTLER. 

IN  the  light  of  the  present  age,  and  before  the  bar  of 
the  omniscient  Judge  of  nations,  the  Romish  corporation 
has  been  long  summoned  to  give  an  account  for  those 
principles  and  deeds  which  have  been  set  forth.  But,  as  a 
corporation,  it  has,  thus  far,  made  no  reply.  It  is  not 
willing  openly  to  avow  and  justify  its  past  deeds  of  treach- 
ery and  blood  ;  and  it  cannot,  or  will  not,  confess  fallibility 
and  damning  guilt. 

Its  partisans,  therefore,  have  come  forward  from  time  to 
time  to  speak  in  its  behalf.  In  England,  Charles  Butler 
has  taken  the  lead  ;  in  America,  Bishops  Kenrick,  Hughes, 
and  Purcell,  and  Mr.  Brownson. 

The  first  mode  of  defence  resorted  to  is  that  of  Charles 
Butler.  He  follows  Bossuet,  and  the  Gallican,  or  French, 
school  of  divines.  He  abandons  to  just  mnra^ation  such 
decisions  and  deeds  of  the  Popes  of-R<3*ne  As  have  been 
stated,  but  endeavors  to  prove  that  the  doctrines  in  ques- 
tion are  not  taught  by  any  general  council,  but  solely  by 
the  popes,  and  that  the  doctrines  and  conduct  of  the 
popes  in  such  cases  were  not  the  voice  of  the  church. 

This  defence  is  obviously  at  war,  not  only  with  that 
most  unequivocal  documentary  evidence  which  I  have  pro- 
duced, but  also  with  much  not  yet  presented. 

The  doctrines  in  question  were  as  truly  promulgated  and 

(92) 


EVASION   OF   CHARLES  BUTLER.  93 

sustained  by  general  councils  as  by  popes.  This  has  been 
proved  as  to  some  councils,  and  is  true  of  others.  Six  gen- 
eral councils,  in  principle  or  in  practice,  or  in  both,  sanc- 
tioned the  violation  of  engagements  and  breach  of  trust  for 
the  sake  of  ecclesiastical  utility.  This  view  cannot  be 
carried  out  except  by  misrepresenting,  evading,  or  denying 
the  plainest  facts  of  history.  Yet  Charles  Butler  adopted 
this  course  and  used  such  fraud  and  evasion,  because  to 
conduct  the  Eomish  cause  to  a  safe  issue  on  any  other 
ground  seemed  hopeless  at  the  time.  It  seems  to  have 
been  with  him  a  stroke  of  policy. 

Mr.  Brownson,  however,  coincides  with  me  in  thinking 
it  poor  policy  to  defend  the  Papacy  by  denying  or  ignoring 
any  obvious  and  notorious  matters  of  fact. 

The  course  of  Butler  and  of  all  others  who  adopt  the 
principles  of  the  Gallican  party  he  repudiates  as  at  war 
with  facts,  dishonorable  to  the  great  popes  of  the  middle 
ages,  and  ruinous  to  Romanism  in  its  ultimate  tendencies 
and  results.  It  was  only  adopted,  he  tells  us,  because  the 
Romanists  were  then  weak  and  cowed  down,  and  is  utterly 
unfit  for  these  times  of  higher  courage  and  bolder  enterprise. 

As  to  the  acts  of  popes  in  deposing  sovereigns  and  dis- 
solving oaths  of  allegiance,  which  Butler  repudiates  as  no 
part  of  the  system  of  Romanism,  he  says, — 

"  The  answers  which  the  church  gives  to  all  great  prac- 
tical questions  have  become  historical.  These  answers 
are  in  many  instances,  no  doubt,  very  offensive  to  the 
spirit  of  the  present  age,  and  such  as  the  prevailing  public 
opinion  denounces  ;  but  there  they  stand  on  the  page  of 
history,  and  can  be  neither  honestly  nor  successfully  de- 
nied or  explained  away.  What  the  church  has  done,  what 
she  has  expressly  or  tacitly  approved  in  the  past,  —  that 
is  exactly  what  she  will  do,  expressly  or  tacitly  approve, 
in  the  future,  if  the  same  circumstances  occur.  This  may 


94          THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

be  a  difficulty,  an  embarrassment ;  but  it  will  not  do  to  shrink 
from  it.  We  are  responsible  for  the  past  history  of  the 
church  in  so  far  as  she  herself  has  acted  ;  and  to  attempt  to 
apologize  for  it  by  an  appeal  to  the  opinion  of  the  times, 
or  to  explain  it  in  conformity  with  the  prevailing  spirit 
and  theories  of  non-Catholics  in  our  age,  is  only  to 
weaken  the  reverence  of  the  faithful  for  the  church  and 
yield  the  victory  to  her  enemies." 

"We  agree  with  Mr.  Brownson  in  regarding  the  course 
of  Butler  and  the  Gallicans  as  fatal  to  the  church. 

For,  suppose  that  it  were  true  —  which  it  is  not  —  that 
no  general  councils  had  sanctioned  such  decisions  and 
deeds  of  the  great  popes  of  the  middle  ages  ;  suppose,  too, 
that  the  popes  are  not  infallible  without  a  general  council ; 
suppose — what  is  not  true  —  that  a  decision  ex  cathedra, 
acquiesced  in  by  the  bishops,  is  not  deemed  infallible. 
We  ask,  Why  did  not  th'e  church  in  some  form  rebuke  the 
popes,  and  set  them  right,  if  they  were  teaching  the  doc- 
trines of  devils  and  reducing  them  to  practice  ?  If  there 
was  infallibility  any  where  in  the  Romish  corporation  dur- 
ing those  long  and  bloody  centuries,  why  did  it  not  in 
some  way  show  itself?  Did  not  the  Romish  corporation 
then  know  that  those  principles  and  deeds  of  the  popes 
were  wrong  which  Charles  Butler  and  the  Gallicans  now 
so  loudly  condemn  ?  If  they  did,  then  why  did  they  not 
condemn  them  ?  If  they  did  not,  then  what  a  mockery  is 
it  to  call  that  an  infallible  corporation  which  could  not, 
and  did  not,  defend  either  themselves  or  their  head  for 
long  centuries  from  errors  so  gigantic,  — promulgated  to  the 
nations  as  the  truths  of  God  Almighty,  the  rejection  of 
which  would  surely  encounter  his  wrath,  —  or  from  their  in- 
evitable results  in  deeds  of  treachery  and  blood  that  have 
ever  since  caused  a  thrill  of  horror  among  the  nations! 
After  Charles  Butler  has  denounced  as  errors  and  crimes 


EVASION  OF   CHARLES  BUTLER.  95 

the  solemn  decisions  and  acts  of  the  popes  of  the  middle 
ages,  deemed  the  most  illustrious  in  the  long  line  of  the 
sovereigns  of  the  church,  how  can  he  expect  any  Prot- 
estant to  retain  the  least  respect  for  the  Papal  church  or 
her  head  in  any  age  ? 


CHAPTER    X. 

EVASION  OF  BISHOPS  HUGHES  AND  E.ENR.ICK. 

THE  other  mode  of  evading  the  facts,  as  to  the  deposing 
power  of  the  pope  and  the  invalidation  of  oaths,  is  to 
resolve  the  •whole  matter  into  the  peculiar  state  of  society 
in  the  middle  ages,  in  which  it  was  the  will  of  the  rulers 
and  of  the  people  that  the  pope  should  exercise  such 
power. 

On  this  ground  Bishop  Hughes,  in  1843,  defended  the 
Papal  corporation,  in  his  lecture  before  the  Irish  Emigra- 
tion Society  in  New  York.  Speaking  of  the  Papal  cor- 
poration, he  says,  p.  12,  "  If  she  has,  at  times,  interfered 
with  the  civil  prerogatives  of  temporal  sovereigns,  her 
right  to  do  so  is  not  founded  on  her  divine  charter,  but 
resulted  either  from  the  concession  of  the  states  themselves, 
or  from  the  absolute  exigency  of  the  circumstances." 

At  still  greater  length  has  Bishop  Kenrick  defended 
this  view,  in  his  labored  Vindication  of  the  Primacy  of  the 
Pope  of  Rome.  He  says,  "  By  the  will  of  princes  and  of 
nations,  and  at  their  earnest  solicitation,  he  intervened  in 
former  ages,  and,  exercising  a  pacific  protectorate,  main- 
tained the  rights  of  all.  *  *  *  gut  he  no  longer  em- 
ploys a  power  which  the  will  and  the  wants  of  the  nations 
once  placed  in  his  hands,  but  which  they  have  again  in 
their  caprice  wrested  from  him."  —  Pp.  304,  305. 

(96) 


EVASION   OF    BISHOPS   HUGHES   AND   KENRICK.  97 

Both  of  these  bishops  also  assure  us  that  from  this  state 
of  things. vast  benefits  flowed  to  the  world. 

Concerning  this  stupendous  evasion,  I  remark,  in  the 
first  place,  that  it  is  directly  at  war  with  facts. 

The  Papal  deposing  power  and  dissolution  of  oaths 
was  not  a  "  pacific  protectorate,"  established  by  the  na- 
tions, but  a  constant  stimulus  to  revolt  and  civil  war. 
Against  all  sovereigns  who  did  not  blindly  obey  the  pope 
it  gave  him  full  power  to  fan  the  flames  of  discontent 
and  to  arouse  his  subjects  to  rebellion.  It  was  even  used  to 
stir  up  the  children  of  kings  to  the  vilest  treachery  towards 
their  parents.  Such  was  the  course  taken  by  the  popes 
towards  the  children  of  the  hated  and  anathematized 
Henry  IV. 

On  this  point  it  is  well  to  place  in  pointed  contrast  the 
words  of  Bishop  Kenrick  and  those  of  the  celebrated  pri- 
mate Bossuet.  It  is  an  illustrious  specimen  of  t"he  "va- 
riations "  of  Romanism. 

In  his  Defence  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Gallican  Clergy, 
book  iv.  chap,  xvii.,  Bossuet  says,  — 

"  Whenever  kings  have  been  deposed  by  the  Roman  pon- 
tiffs in  the  exercise  of  such  authority,  NEVER  by  any  king, 
NEVER  by  the  different  orders  of  any  kingdom,  has  this  author- 
ity been  recognized  as  lawful.  On  the  other  hand,  kingdoms 
and  kings  have  resisted  it,  and  the  result  has  been  bloody 
foreign  and  civil  wars  ;  wherefore  the  pope  has  not,  in  fact, 
ever  bestowed  kingdoms,  but  has  only  produced  causes  of 
war,  and  given  a  pretext  and  color  to  ambition  and  rebel- 
lion, and  involved  the  whole  world  in  the  flames  of  war ; 
and,  in  a  word,  these  depositions  of  kings  by  the  authority  of 
the  pope  have  never  been  of  the  least  use,  but  have  caused 
immense  odium  and  injury."  . 

In  the  second  place,  both  of  these  writers,  and  Bishop 
Kenrick  in  particular,  have  inexcusably  misrepresented 


98         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  real  nature  of  the  Papal  claim  as  put  forth  by  Gregory 
VII.,  the  great  founder  of  the  system,  and  by  his  successors. 
"Vftth  true  Jesuitical  craft,  Bishop  Kenrick  has  avoided 
all  quotations  from  the  letters  of  Gregory  to  the  sovereigns 
and  ecclesiastics  of  Europe,  in  which  he  unequivocally 
developed  his  purpose  to  reduce  all  temporal  rulers  to  the 
position  of  feudal  vassals  to  the  holy  see,  binding  them  by 
an  oath  of  allegiance  similar  to  that  by  which  the  bishops 
were  soon  bound,  and  which  they  take  even  to  this  day. 
He  does  not  quote  his  reputed  claims  of  a  divine  right  to 
do  all  this.  On  the  other  hand,  against  both  the  letter 
and  the  spirit  of  the  act  of  deposition,  he  represents 
Gregory  as  acting  by  an  authority  conferred  on  him  by 
the  nations.  In  a  series  of  twelve  letters  to  the  bishop, 
published  in  the  Christian  Alliance  some  years  since,  I 
at  some  length  exposed  what  I  could  not  but  consider  as 
his  deliberate  Jesuitical  frauds,  designed  to  Ifoodwink  and 
delude  my  honorable  and  magnanimous  fellow-citizens. 
I  have  not  room  at  present  to  go  farther  into  the  details 
of  the  case. 

It  is  enough  to  say,  in  general,  that  nothing  can  be  more 
at  war  with  notorious  facts  than  this  evasion.  Where  or 
when  did  Gregory  VII.,  or  Innocent  III.,  or  Boniface 
VIII.,  or  any  other  of  those  imperious  lords  of  the  church 
declare  or  even  hint  that  they  derived  their  powers  from 
either  rulers  or  the  people,  or  that  they  were  acting  in 
their  name  ?  They  claimed  their  powers  directly  from 
God,  through  Peter,  the  great  head  of  the  church.  Nor 
did  the  nations  ever  pretend  that  it  belonged  to  them  to 
confer  such  power  on  the  pope.  The  very  idea  is  ridicu- 
lous to  any  one  who  knows  the  spirit  and  the  convictions 
of  that  age. 

It  deserves  notice,  also,  that  these  claims  of  the  pope,  as 
head  of  the  church,  do  not  rest  on  his  own  unsustained 


EVASION   OF  BISHOPS   HUGHES  AND   KENRICK.  99 

assumptions.  In  the  great  general  council  of  Lyons,  in 
1245,  Pope  Innocent  IY.  and  the  council  together  con- 
firmed the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  the  pope  and 
of  the  Papal  corporation  to  depose  monarchs.  The  pope 
deposed  Frederic  II. ;  and  they  concurred  with  the  pope, 
proclaiming  their  decision  as  the  judgment  of  God  and 
their  own,  but  not  referring,  even  remotely,  to  a  delegated 
power  received  from  the  people.  The  same  principles 
were  established  in  the  fourth  Lateran  council  under 
Innocent  III.  and  by  many  other  general  councils. 

Moreover,  in  the  long  run,  this  evasion  is  no  less  fatal 
to  the  Papal  system  than  the  other.  According  to  it,  on 
questions  of  the  highest  conceivable  moment,  the  pope 
leaves  his  lofty  position,  as  filling  the  place  of  God  on 
earth,  to  become  a  mere  fallible  tribune,  or  president,  or 
referee  of  human  appointment  among  contending  nations. 
He  is  a  mere  fallible  agent  of  human,  uninspired  society, 
and  not  Us  lord  and  head.  It  in  fact  betrays  the  cause 
of  the  Papacy  and  the  Romish  church,  through  fear  of  the 
enlightened,  popular  sentiments  of  the  present  age. 

Mr.  Browrison  sees  the  logical  results  of  this  evasion  also, 
and  boldly  repudiates  it.  He  also  declares  it  to  be  at  war 
with  facts.  Civil  governments  and  human  society,  he  er- 
roneously affirms,  did  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  the 
pope  over  earthly  rulers  and  his  power  to  dissolve  oaths  ; 
but  he  insists  that  they  did  not  confer  it.  Nor  did  the 
pope  ever  concede  or  intimate  that  such  was  the  basis  of 
his  power.  Nothing  can  be  stronger  than  the  assertions  of 
Mr.  Brownson  in  his  review  of  M.  Gosselin.  He  says,  — 

"  The  whole  current  of  history  is  against  the  author. 
He  cannot  adduce  a  single  official  act  of  pope  or  council 
which  concedes  that  the  temporal  authority  exercised  was 
held  only  by  a  human  title.  All  history  fails  to  show  an 
instance  in  which  the  pope,  in  deposing  a  temporal  sover- 


100         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

eign,  professes  to  do  it  by  the  authority  vested  in  him 
by  the  pious  belief  of  the  faithful,  generally  received  max- 
ims, the  opinion  of  the  age,  the  concessions  of  sovereigns, 
or  the  civil  constitution  and  public  laws  of  Catholic  states. 
On  the  contrary,  he  always  claims  to  do  it  by  the  authori- 
ty committed  to  him  as  the  successor  of  the  prince  of 
the  apostles,  by  the  authority  of  his  apostolic  ministry,  by 
the  authority  committed  to  him  of  binding  and  loosing,  by 
the  authority  of  Almighty  God,  of  Jesus  Christ,  King  of 
kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  whose  minister,  though  unworthy, 
he  asserts  that  he  is  ;  or  some  such  formula,  which  solemnly 
and  expressly  sets  forth  that  his  authority  is  held  by 
divine  right,  by  virtue  of  his  ministry,  and  exercised  sole- 
ly in  his  character  of  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth.  To 
this,  we  believe,  there  is  not  a  single  exception.  Wher- 
ever the  popes  cite  their  titles,  they  never,  so  far  as  we  can 
find,  cite  a  human  title,  but  always  a  divine  title.  Whence 
is  this  ?  Did  the  popes  cite  a  false  title  ?  Were  they  ig- 
norant of  their  own  title  ?  or  was  this  assertion  of  title 
an  empty  form,  meaning  nothing  ?  This  is  a  grave  matter  ; 
and  this  fact  alone  seems  to  us  decisive  against  the  author." 

He  also  says,  — 

"  One  of  two  things,  it  seems  to  us,  must  be  admitted, 
if  we  have  regard  to  the  undeniable  facts  in  the  case  ; 
namely,  either  the  popes  usurped  the  authority  tJiey  exercised 
over  sovereigns  in  the  middle  ages,  or  they  possessed  it  by 
virtue  of  their  title  as  vicars  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth.  We 
do  not,  therefore,  regard  M.  Gosselin's  theory  as  tenable  ; 
and  we  count  his  attempted  defence  of  the  pope  on  the 
ground  of  human  right  a  failure. 

"  There  is,  in  our  judgment,  but  one  valid  defence  of  the 
popes  in  their  exercise  of  temporal  authority  in  the  mid- 
dle ages  over  sovereigns  ;  and  that  is,  that  they  possess  it 
by  divine  right,  or  that  the  pope  holds  that  authority  by 
virtue  of  his  commission  from  Jesus  Christ,  as  the  succes- 
sor of  Peter,  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  and  visible  head 
of  the  church.  Any  defence  of  them  on  a  lower  ground 
must,  in  our  judgment,  fail  to  meet  the  real  points  in  the 
case,  and  is  rather  an  evasion  than  a  fair,  honest,  direct, 


EVASION  OF  BISHOPS   HUGHES   AND   KENRICK.         101 

and  satisfactory  reply.  To  defend  their  power  as  an  ex- 
traordinary power,  or  as  an  accident  in  church  history, 
growing  out  of  the  peculiar  circumstances,  civil  constitu- 
tion, and  laws  of  the  times,  no\y  passed  away,  perhaps  for- 
ever, may  be  regarded  as  less  likely  to  displease  non- 
Catholics  and  to  offend  the  sensibilities  of  power  than  to 
defend  it  on  the  ground  of  divine  right  and  as  inherent  in 
the  divine  constitution  of  the  church ;  but,  even  on  the  low 
ground  of  policy,  we  do  not  think  it  the  wisest  in  the  long 
run.  Say  what  we  will,  we  can  gain  little  credit  with 
those  we  would  conciliate.  Always,  to  their  minds,  will 
the  temporal  power  of  the  pope  by  divine  right  loom  up 
in  the  distance  ;  and  always  will  they  believe,  however 
individual  Catholics  here  and  thero  may  deny  it  or  nom- 
inally Catholic  governments  oppose  it,  that  it  is  the  real 
Roman  Catholic  doctrine,  to  be  reasserted  and  acted  the 
moment  that  circumstances  render  it  prudent  or  expe- 
dient. We  gain  nothing  with  them  but  doubts  of  our  sin- 
cerity, and  we  only  weaken  among  ourselves  that  warm 
and  generous  devotion  to  the  holy  father  which  is  due 
from  every  one  of  the  faithful,  and  which  is  so  essential 
to  the  prosperity  of  the  church  in  her  unceasing  struggles 
with  the  godless  powers  of  this  world." 

He  also  asserts  that  the  position  thus  defended  by  him 
is  that  of  the  leading  Romish  divines  :  — 

"  He  cannot  be  unaware  that  the  doctrine  he  rejects  is 
the  most  logical,  the  most  consonant  to  Catholic  instincts, 
the  most  honorable  to  the  dignity  and  majesty  of  the  Pa- 
pacy, or  that  it  has  undeniably  the  weight  of  authority  on 
its  side.  The  principal  Catholic  authorities  are  certainly 
in  favor  of  the  divine  right ;  and  the  principal  authorities 
which  he  is  able  to  oppose  to  them  are  of  parliaments, 
sovereigns,  jurisconsults,  courtiers,  and  prelates  and  doc- 
tors who  sustained  the  temporal  powers  in  their  wars 
against  the  popes.  The  Gallican  doctrine  was,  from  the 
first,  the  doctrine  of  the  courts,  in  opposition  to  that  of 
the  vicars  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  should,  therefore,  be  re- 
garded by  every  Catholic  with  suspicion." 
9* 


102         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIKACY  EXPOSED. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  that  nevertheless,  in  view  of 
the  popular  feeling  in  this  country,  Bishops  Hughes  and 
Kenrick  have  both  undertaken  to  defend  the  course  of  the 
popes  during  the  middle  ages  on  the  very  grounds  which 
Mr.  Brownson  so  pointedly  condemns. 

Their  defence,  however,  deserves  no  confidence  as  an 
expression  of  their  real  opinions.  It  was,  no  doubt,  de- 
signed to  delude  Protestants  for  the  time,  till  the  Romish 
corporation  might  gain  strength  to  assume  a  new  po- 
sition. 

I  am  led  to  this  conclusion  by  the  fact  that  the  Romish 
agents,  both  in  France  and  in  this  country,  seem  to  be  at 
length  disclosing  their  purpose  to  assume  the  ground 
which  I- have  stated  as  the  real  Papal  ground,  and  which 
is  the  only  consistent  and  logical  basis  on  which  to  at- 
tempt a  defence  of  the  Papacy.  The  old  Gallican  doc- 
trine is  also  generally  abandoned  in  France ;  and  we  are 
coming  to  the  simple  position,  that  all  who  revolt  from 
the  Romish  corporation,  by  that  very  act  are  disfranchised 
and  stripped  of  all  their  rights. 

Mr.  Brownson,  in  his  Review  for  January,  1852,  makes 
the  bold  and  explicit  avowal  that  Protestantism  of  every 
form  has,,  not,  and  never  can  have,  any  rights.  —  P.  64. 
^ He  says  also  that  "we  lose  all  the  breath  we  expend 
in  declaiming  against  bigotry  and  intolerance,  and  in 
favor  of  religious  liberty,  or  the  right  of  any  man  to  be 
of  religion  or  no  religion,  as  best  pleases  him,  which  some 
two  or  three  of  our  journalists  would  fain  persuade  the 
world  is  Catholic  doctrine." 

It  seems,  then,  that  when  Mr.  Brownson,  in  a  former 
extract,  speaks  of  conceding  to  us  equal  rights,  he  means, 
as  we  intimated,  so  long  as  they  have  no  power  to  take 
them  away.  But  as  soon  as  Catholicity  is  triumphant, 
then  beware. 


EVASION  OP   BISHOPS   HUGHES   AND   KENRICK.         103 

I  find  in  the  Letters  of  an  Independent  Irishman,  ad- 
dressed to  Bishop  Fitzpatrick,  the  following  passage  :  — 

"Says  Bishop  Kenrick,  'No  faith  with  heretics;'  and 
says  Bishop  O'Connor,  of  Pittsburg,  'Religious  liberty  is 
merely  endured  until  the  opposite  can  be  carried  into  execution 
without  peril  to  the  Catholic  world.'  This  bigoted  sentiment 
is  the  same  in  kind  with  that  quoted  from  the  Catholic 
Review — no  rights  for  Protestants,  or  any  body  else  ex- 
cept Catholics.  Fine  doctrine  for  a  republic !  Of  pre- 
cisely the  same  nature  was  the  sentiment  lately  uttered 
by  the  Bishop  of  St.  Louis  :  '  Catholicity  will  one  day 
rule  America  ;  and  then  religious  liberty  is  at  an  end.'  No 
doubt  of  it.  The  St.  Louis  bishop  and  I  agree  exactly 
on  this  point ;  and  such,  I  presume,  is  your  opinion  also." 

I  have  not  verified  these  quotations  ;  but,  whether  they 
have  used  these  precise  words  or  not,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  they  express  the  real  sentiments  of  those  men. 

Whatever  any  American  bishop  may  say,  one  act  of 
theirs  speaks  louder  than  all  their  professions  of  patriot- 
ism ;  yea,  louder  than  seven  thunders.  They  have,  by  a 
solemn  decision  of  their  provincial  council  at  Baltimore, 
significantly  proclaimed  that  they  adopt  the  system  of 
which  the  maxims  are  such  as  have  been  set  forth. 

Into  the  midst  of  this  Protestant  nation,  by  a  special 
act  of  the  Baltimore  council  of  Rornish  bishops,  they  have 
introduced  the  idolatrous  worship  of  Gregory  VII. ;  thu? 
selecting  and  presenting  him,  of  all  the  saints  of  the 
Romish  calendar,  to  our  own  people  as  an  object  of  wor- 
ship, and  fixing  the  eyes  of  this  nation  on  him  as  the 
object  of  peculiar  attention  and  reverence. 

We  accordingly  look  at  his  character,  and  find  him  to 
be  the  notorious  author  of  the  system  of  deposing  kings, 
and  the  projector  of  a  universal  feudal  monarchy,  of  which 
he  was  to  be  the  head,  and  all  kings,  nobles,  and  rulers 
his  sworn  vassals.  We  find  him,  in  endeavoring  to  carry 


104         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

out  his  claims  and  plans,  involving  Italy  and  Germany  for 
more  than  thirty  years  in  a  bloody  civil  war,  and  estab- 
lishing precedents  which  for  centuries  disturbed  the  peace 
of  all  Europe  and  subjected  the  nations  to  the  most  ap- 
palling despotism  ever  known.  Pius  Y.  canonized  him  as 
a  saint. 

The  service  prescribed  by  him  for  the  festival  of  Greg- 
ory, in  the  Roman  breviary,  specially  commemorates  his 
acts  in  the  following  terms  :  "  Gregory  shone  like  the 
sun  in  the  house  of  God.  He  deprived  Henry  of  his  king- 
dom and  freed  his  vassals  from  their  fealty.  All  the 
earth  is  full  of  his  doctrine.  He  has  departed  to  heaven. 
Enable  us,  by  his  example  and  advocacy,  to  overcome  all 
adversity.  May  he  intercede  for  all  the  sins  of  the  peo- 
ple." Alexander  VII.  introduced  this  office  into  the  Ro- 
man basilics.  Clement  XI.,  in  1704,  recommended  it  to 
the  Cistercians,  and,  in  1710,  to  the  Benedictines.  It 
was  approved  by  Benedict  XIII.,  and  retains  its  place  in 
the  Roman  breviary. 

Let  it  now  be  noticed  still  further,  that  this  act  of  can- 
onization had  special  reference  to  the  deposing  doctrine. 
It  indorses  it,  as  practised  by  Gregory,  in  the  most  ample 
manner.  It  regards  it  as  the  doctrine  of  all  times  and 
all  countries,  and  declares  that  the  earth  is  full  of  that 
doctrine. 

Nor  is  this  all.  The  maxims  of  Gregory  VII.  have  not 
been  renounced  by  the  court  of  Rome  in  the  nineteenth 
century.  I  refer  you  to  the  following  statement  of  Dau- 
nou,  that  eminently  learned  and  candid  Roman  Catholic  : 
"If  we  had  lost  the  twenty-seven  propositions  of  Hilde- 
brand,  they  might  all  be  found  in  the  acts  of  Pius  VII., 
A.  ]).  1800-1823.  This  will  not  astonish  those  who  have 
studied  the  history  of  the  court  of  Rome.  While  it  exists, 
this  court  will  have  no  other  principles.  Scarcely  will  it 


EVASION   OP   BISHOPS   HUGHES   AXD    KENRICK.         105 

be  able  to  dissemble  them,  even  in  times  which  require  the 
most  circumspection.  We  shall,  without  doubt,  see  this 
court  taking  advantage  of  all  circumstances,  which  will 
allow  her  still  to  maintain  them,  by  anathemas,  by  wars, 
by  catastrophes,  and  by  vast  proscriptions." 

If  this  seems  to  be  bold  language  for  a  Roman  Catholic, 
let  it  be  compared  with  the  language  of  Bossuet,  whose 
words  I  have  already  quoted.  It  is  but  a  faithful  carrying 
out  of  the  spirit  of  his  statements. 

Let  me  then  disclose,  for  the  benefit  of  American  repub- 
licans, some  of  this  doctrine  of  Gregory,  of  which  the 
earth  is  declared  to  be  full.  Baronius  regards  the  twenty- 
seven  propositions  as  a  genuine  composition  of  Gregory 
himself ;  others  regard  them  as  a  collection  of  sentiments 
derived  from  his  letters  ;  but  all  agree  that  they  truly  rep- 
resent the  doctrine  of  his  epistles  and  of  his  acts.  Indeed 
they  can  all  be  derived  from  his  letters. 

"  He  alone  can  invest  himself  with  the  insignia  of  em- 
pire." 

"  He  has  authority  to  depose  emperors." 

"  He  can  absolve  the  subjects  of  bad  princes  from  every 
oath  of  fe'alty." 

"  All  princes  kiss  his  feet  alone." 

"  His  name  only  is  to  be  pronounced  in  the  churches." 

"It  is  the  only  name  in  the  world." 

Such  is  the  doctrine  of  Gregory  VII.,  of  which,  accord- 
ing to  the  services  of  the  Papal  church,  the  world  is  full. 

But  in  all  this  it  seems  that  the  bishops  of  that  church 
in  the  United  States  of  America  see  no  ambition  and  no 
usurpation.  No  ;  for  Bishop  Kenrick  tells  us  that  Pope 
Gregory  VII.  "  is  recognized  as  a  saint,  and  cannot,  without 
temerity,  be  accused  of  ambition."  Moreover,  that  very 
church  which  recognizes  him  as  a  saint  celebrates  his 
deposing  doctrine  and  deeds  in  acts  of  solemn  worship 
at  his  shrine. 


106        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Moreover,  Bishop  Kenrick  really,  though  not  openly, 
declares  that  the  true  and  proper  state  of  society  was  that 
which  existed  whilst  these  doctrines  were  in  force,  and 
that  the  world  has  been  a  loser  by  rejecting  them.  All 
this  was  fully  evinced  in  the  letters  to  which  reference  has 
been  made. 

With  such  facts  before  us,  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt 
that  the  Romish  bishops  of  America  would,  if  they  could, 
carry  out  the  extremest  views  of  the  Italian  school,  of 
which  Gregory  VII.  is  the  founder  and  head  ? 

It  is  also  a  sign  of  the  times  that  the  same  views  are 
reproduced  in  England,  France,  and  America.  The 
French  school  is  dying  out ;  and  all-pervading  efforts  are 
made  to  establish  the  most  absolute  doctrines  of  the  court 
of  Rome,  which  have  already  deluged  the  world  in  blood. 

In  England,  a  Romish  paper  called  the  Rambler  speaks 
as  follows  :  — 

"  Religious  liberty,  in  the  sense  of  a  liberty  possessed 
by  every  man  to  choose  his  own  religion,  is  one  of  the 
most  wicked  delusions  ever  foisted  upon  this  age  by  the 
father  of  all  deceit.  The  very  name  of  liberty  —  except  in 
the  sense  of  a  permission  to  do  certain  definite  acts  — 
ought  to  be  banished  from  the  domain  of  religion.  It  is  neither 
more  nor  less  than  a  falsehood.  JVb  man  has  a  right  to  choose 
his  religion.  None  but  an  atheist  can  uphold  the  principles 
of  religious  liberty.  Shall  I,  therefore,  fall  in  with  this 
abominable  delusion?  Shall  I  foster  that  damnable  doctrine, 
that  Socinianism,  and  Calvinism,  and  Anglicanism,  and  Ju- 
daism are  not  every  one  of  them  mortal  sins  like  murder  and 
adultery  ?  Shall  I  hold  out  hopes  to  my  erring  Protestant 
brother  that  I  will  not  meddle  with  his  creed  if  he  will 
not  meddle  with  mine  ?  Shall  I  tempt  him  to  forget  that 
he  has  no  more  right  to  his  religious  views  than  he  has  to 
my  purse,  or  my  house,  or  my  lifeblood  ?  No.  Catholicism 
is  the  most  intolerant  of  creeds.  It  is  intolerance  itself ;  for 
it  is  the  truth  itself.  We  might  as  rationally  maintain 
that  a  sane  man  has  a  right  to  believe  that  two  and  two 


EVASION   OP  BISHOPS   HUGHES  AND   KENRICK.         107 

do  not  make  four,  as  this  theory  of  religious  liberty.     Its 
impiety  is  only  equalled  by  its  absurdity." 

This  was  republished  and  indorsed  by  the  Shepherd  of 
the  Valley,  a  Romish  paper  at  St.  Louis. 

Bishop  Kenrick  also  is  quoted  by  the  Independent  Irish- 
man as  saying, — 

"  Heresy  and  unbelief  are  CRIMES  ;  that  is  the  whole  of 
the  matter.  And  in  Christian  countries,  as  in  Italy  and 
Spain  for  instance,  where  all  the  people  are  Catholic, 
and  where  the  Catholic  religion  is  an  essential  part  of  the 
law  of  the  land,  they  will  be  punished  as  other  crimes." 

The  Bishop  of  St.  Louis  also  is  quoted  by  him  as  say- 
ing.— 

"Protestantism  of  every  kind  Catholicity  inserts  in  her 
catalogue  of  mortal  sins  ;  she  endures  it  when  and  where 
she  must ;  but  she  hates  it,  and  directs  all  her  energies  to 
effect  its  destruction.  If  the  Catholics  ever  gain,  which 
they  surely  will  do,  an  immense  numerical  majority,  re- 
ligious freedom  in  this  country  is  at  an  end."* 

Honestly  they  cannot  say  any  thing  else  ;  and  clearly 
the  principles  of  Brownson,  with  reference  to  the  de- 
cisions of  the  pope  and  the  church  in  the  middle  ages, 
involve  all  this,  and  also  a  full  sanction  of  all  their  doc- 
trines, as  to  fraud,  treachery,  and  falsehood,  towards  all 
out  of  the  pale  of  the  Romish  church.  They  involve  the 
maxim,  which  once  he  repudiated  with  indignation,  that 
no  faith  is  to  be  kept  with  heretics. 

All  of  these  decisions  are,  as  truly  as  any  others,  the  an- 
swers of  the  church  on  great  practical  questions,  and  have- 
become  historical.  To  these  he  ought  to  apply  his  own 
words. — 

"  These  answers  are  in  many  instances,  no  doubt,  very 
offensive  to  the  spirit  of  the  present  age,  and  such  as  the 


108         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

prevailing  public  opinion  denounces  ;  but  there  they  stand 
on  the  page  of  history,  and  can  be  neither  honestly  nor 
successfully  denied  or  explained  away.  What  the  church 
has  done,  what  she  has  expressly  or  tacitly  approved  in 
the  past, —  that  is  exactly  what  she  will  do,  expressly  or 
tacitly  approve,  in  the  future,  if  the  same  circumstances 
occur.  This  may  be  a  difficulty,  an  embarrasment ;  but  it 
will  not  do  to  shrink  from  it.  We  are  responsible  for  the 
past  history  of  the  church  in  so  far  as  she  herself  has 
acted ;  and  to  attempt  to  apologize  for  it  by  an  appeal  to 
the  opinion  of  the  times,  or  to  explain  it  in  conformity 
with  the  prevailing  spirit  and  theories  of  non- Catholics 
in  our  age,  is  only  to  weaken  the  reverence  of  the  faithful 
for  the  church  and  yield  the  victory  to  her  enemies." 

This  part  of  the  subject,  then,  is  plain.  The  real  and 
infamous  doctrines  of  the  Romish  corporation  on  veracity 
and  the  rights  of  Protestants  can  neither  be  concealed  nor 
evaded. 

The  question  of  their  power  to  gain  the  ascendency  in 
this  nation,  and  to  carry  out  such  principles,  is  not  at 
present  under  discussion.  Our  present  purpose  is  to  en- 
able all  candid  men  to  decide  what  the  principles  of  the 
Romish  corporation  are,  to  see  that  they  are  immutable, 
and  that  nothing  will  prevent  them  from  carrying  them 
out  but  want  of  power. 

Have  I  not,  then,  proved  the  propositions  which  I  have 
announced  ?  Do  not  the  pope  and  his  corporation  place 
their  own  interests  above  all  others  whatever?  Do  they 
not  at  once  disfranchise  all  who  renounce  their  authority  ? 
Do  they  not  declare  all  their  rights  vacated  ?  Do  they 
not  declare  that  all  obligations  of  veracity  and  fidelity 
towards  them  cease  ;  that  all  claims  of  protection  or  de- 
fence are  vacated  ;  that  they  are  at  once  outlawed  and  in- 
testate ;  and  that  to  massacre  and  exterminate  them  is  a 
duty? 

•  Such  is  the  fraudulent,  treacherous,  f  ruol,  malignant,  and 


EVASION  OP   BISHOPS  HUGHES  AND  KENRICK.         109 

diabolical  system  that  is  conspiring  against  this  country 
and  against  humanity,  and  with  which  we  are  called  to 
contend. 

But  there  is  a  still  lower  depth  of  treachery  into  which 
the  chief  defenders  of  this  system  have  fallen.  The  Jesuits 
advocate  and  defend  all  that  I  have  stated,  because  they 
are  the  sworn  defenders  of  the  Pope  of  Rome. 

But,  in  carrying  out  their  plans,  they  have  carried  the 
system  of  fraud  and  delusion  to  a  more  perfect  develop- 
ment than  ever  before. 

We  shall  not  understand  the  full  power  of  the  great 
conspiracy  until  we  understand  these  men. 
10 


CHAPTER    XI. 

THE  JESUITS  ON  LYING. 

WE  are  called  on  by  divine  Providence,  as  American 
citizens,  not  only  to  sit  in  judgment  on  the  principles  of  the 
great  central  Romish  corporation  as  to  truth  and  human 
rights,  but  also  of  those  subordinate  corporations  which  are 
banded  together  in  one  great  conspiracy  to  sustain  and 
extend  the  authority  of  the  central  power. 

Of  these,  by  far  the  most  powerful  and  notorious  is  the 
order  of  the  Jesuits.  It  arose  soon  after  the  reformation, 
and  was  organized  for  the  express  purpose  of  resisting  its 
progress.  It  has  rendered  itself  so  infamous  that  it  was 
once  suppressed  ;  yet  it  was  so  essential  to  the  Papacy 
that  it  has  been  again  revived,  and,  under  its  head  at 
Rome,  is  again  pervading  the  world. 

It  developed  a  code  of  morals  which,  as  a  whole,  is  per- 
fectly diabolical.  It  is  not,  however,  my  purpose  here  to 
expound  that  code  in  full,  but  to  show  that,  on  the  great 
question  of  veracity,  it  is  a  fit  exemplification  of  the  au- 
thorized principles  and  general  tendencies  of  the  system 
of  Rome.  We  should  naturally  expect  this,  since  they 
have  ever  been  the  chief  defenders  of  the  see  of  Rome. 
It  will  not,  then,  be  deemed  an  accidental  coincidence  if 
we  find  them  engaged  in  reducing  the  principles  of  lying, 
perjury,  and  slander  to  a  systematic  form.  Their  labors 
in  this  department  I  shall  proceed  to  review. 

(110) 


THE  JESUITS  ON  LYING.  Ill 

Nor  is  this  needless.  No  body  of  men  are  making  such 
efforts  to  extend  their  power  throughout  our  land.  They 
know  well  that  in  consequence  of  their  former  conduct 
their  order  still  rests  under  a  load  of  infamy  that  has 
made  the  very  name  Jesuit  a  proverb,  and  a  byword,  and 
a  hissing,  and  the  terms  Jesuitical  and  diabolical  well 
nigh  synonymous  in  the  public  mind. 

Mr.  Brownson,  therefore,  in  his  newborn  zeal  for  Ro- 
manism, has  felt  himself  especially  called  on  to  vindicate 
these  servants  of  the  Papacy,  as  in  a  preeminent  degree 
hated  and  slandered  for  righteousness'  sake. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  work  of  no  common  interest  and  im- 
portance to  investigate  the  avowed  principles  of  the  lead- 
ing authors  .of  this  order  of  men  as  it  regards  speaking 
the  truth  in  our  dealings  with  our  fellow-men. 

To  any  one  who  has  ever  read  the  letters  of  Pascal 
there  is  little  need  to  say  much  on  this  point.  He  made 
it  notorious  throughout  the  civilized  world  that  their  most 
prominent  writers  on  morals  totally  subverted  by  their 
doctrines  the  very  foundations  of  truth  in  the  intercourse 
of  man  with  man. 

I  will  but  quote  a  few  of  their  profligate  maxims  from 
the  works  of  their  standard  authors.  Pascal  gives  from 
Sanchez  the  following  choice  specimens  of  morality :  — 

"  It  is  lawful  to  use  ambiguous  terms,  to  give  the  impres- 
sion a  different  sense  from  that  which  you  yourself  under- 
stand."—  Op.  Mor.,  p.  2,  b.  iii.  c.  vi.  n.  13. 

In  the  same  place  he  says,  "  A  person  may  take  an  oath 
that  he  has  not  done  such  a  thing,  though  in  fact  he  has, 
by  saying  to  himself  it  was  not  done  on  a  certain  specified 
day,  or  before  he  was  born,  or  by  concealing  any  other 
circumstance  which  gives  another  meaning  to  the  state- 
ment. This  is,  in  numberless  instances,  extremely  conven- 


112         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

rent,  and  is  always  very  just  when  it  is  necessary  to  your 
health,  honor,  or  property." 

Again  :  "  It  is  the  intention  which  stamps  the  character 
of  the  action." 

To  illustrate  this,  Escobar,  tr.  iii.  ex.  iii.  n.  48,  gives 
this  general  rule  :  — 

"  Promises  are  not  obligatory  when  a  man  has  no  inten- 
tion of  being  bound  to  fulfil  them." 

Again :  Bourne  quotes  from  Sanchez,  Op.  Mor.,  lib.  i. 
cap.  x.  Nos.  12,  13,  p.  49  :  "  An  oath,  obliges  not  beyond 
the  intention  of  him  who  takes  it."  Here  we  have  the  fa- 
mous Jesuitical  doctrine  of  "  directing  the  intention "  so 
as  to  promise  or  swear  any  thing  that  is  desired,  either 
for  the  church  or  for  individual  interest,  and  yet  not  be 
bound. 

The  mode  by  which  a  Jesuit  or  any  Romanist  can  enter 
a  Protestant  church  by  oath  or  covenant,  without  sin,  is 
thus  given,  Bauny  Sum.,  cap.  vi.  cone.  iv.  p.  73  :  "  He 
who  maintains  an  heretical  proposition  without  believing 
it,  or  who  is  a  communicant  among  the  Protestants  with- 
out having  his  heart  there,  but  out  of  pure  derision,  or  to 
comply  with  the  times,  and  to  accomplish  his  designs,  ought 
not  to  be  esteemed  a  Protestant,  because  his  understand- 
ing is  not  infected  with  error." 

As  to  truth  in  civil  courts,  Taberna,  vol.  ii.  part  ii. 
tract,  ii.  cap.  xxxi.  p.  288,  speaks  thus :  "  Is  a  witness 
bound  to  declare  the  truth  before  a  legitimate  judge  ?  No, 
if  his  deposition  will  injure  himself,  his  family,  or  prop- 
erty, or  if  he  be  a  priest  i  for  a  priest  cannot  be  forced  to  tes- 
tify before  a  secular  judge  " 

Again:  Layman,  lib.  iv.  tract,  iii.  cap.  i.  p.  78  :  "It  is 
not  sufficient  for  an  oath  that  we  use  the  formal  words,  if 
we  have  not  the  intention  and  wiH  to  swear"  (See  McGaviu's 
Prdtestant,  vol.  ii.  pp.  705-7.) 


THE  JESUITS   ON  LYING.  113 

It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  these  profligate  principles 
go  beyond  the  maxim,  that  it  is  right  to  lie  for  ecclesias- 
tical utility.  They  subvert  the  foundations  of  truth  in  all 
things.  No  matter  what  words  a  man  uses,  if  he  secretly 
intends  something  else,  he  is  not  bound  by  promises  or 
by  oaths. 

No  less  damnable  are  their  doctrines  as  to  slander. 
These,  of  course,  have  a  wide  range,  and  have  been  ex- 
tensively used  by  the  Jesuits  in  controversies  and  in 
blackening  the  characters  of  Protestants.  They  there- 
fore sustain  an  intimate  relation  to  the  management  of  all 
controversies  between  Komanists  and  Protestants.  It  is 
an  obvious  dictate  of  honor  to  avoid  personalities  in  ar- 
gument and  to  confine  the  attention  to  principles  and 
facts.  Especially  is  it  a  dictate,  not  only  of  honor,  but  of 
the  word  of  God,  not  to  try  to  destroy  the  force  of  argu- 
ments by  slandering  their  authors. 

When  a  writer  has  endeavored  to  throw  light  upon  an 
important  subject,  and  stated  principles  and  sustained  his 
assertions  by  documents  of  unquestioned  authority,  it  may 
be  much  easier  to  slander  him  personally,  and  call  him  a  liar, 
a  drunkard,  an  adulterer,  than  to  answer  his  arguments. 
But  one  would  hardly  expect  that  men  who  are  such  saints 
that  the  world  is  not  worthy  of  them  would  sanction  such 
a  mode  of  proceeding.  Yet  this  the  Jesuits  have  done. 
Their  maxim  is  this  :  "  It  is  no  mortal  sin  to  oppose  a  slan- 
derer by  slandering  him."  Of  course  they  must  judge  who 
a  slanderer  is ;  and  it  is  very  easy  to  conclude  that  who- 
ever says  any  thing  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  order  of 
the  Jesuits  is  a  slanderer,  and  that  it  becomes  no  mortal 
sin  to  slander  him.  This  was  charged  upon  them  by  Pas- 
cal in  his  fifteenth  Provincial  Letter,  without  the  slightest 
hesitation,  as  a  notorious  principle  of  theirs ;  and  he  sus- 
tained his  charge  by  such  an  array  of  evidence  that  no 
10* 


114         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Jesuit  to  this  day  has  been  able  in  the  slightest  degree  to 
destroy  its  force.  Let  us  listen  to  the  charge  in  the 
words  of  Pascal  :  — 

"It  is  my  purpose. to  advance  a  step  farther  than  merely 
to  show  that  your  writings  are  replete  with  calumnious 
representations.  Falsehoods  may  be  stated  under  an  im- 
pression that  they  are  truths  ;  but  lying  is  characterized  by 
the  intention  to  deceive.  I  shall  show  that  you  design  to 
deceive  and  calumniate,  and  that  you  purposely  impute 
crimes  to  your  enemies  of  which  you  know  they  are  per- 
fectly innocent,  because  you  believe  it  may  be  done  with- 
out falling  from  a  state  of  grace.  And,  though  you  may 
be  as  well  acquainted  as  myself  with  this  point  of  your 
morality,  I  shall  beg  permission  to  state  it,  that  no  further 
doubt  may  exist,  by  showing  that  I  challenge  you  person- 
ally and  individually  on  the  subject,  without  even  your 
being  able  to  deny  it,  with  all  your  assurance,  unless  at  the 
same  time  you  own  that  for  which  I  reproach  you.  For  this 
is  a  doctrine  so  common  in  your  schools  that  you  have  not 
only  maintained  it  in  your  writings,  but  even  in  your  public 
theses,  which  is  an  act  of  the  utmost  presumption  —  as,  for 
example,  in  that  of  Louvain,  in  the  year  1645,  in  the  fol- 
lowing words  :  '  It  is  only  a  venial  sin  to  calumniate  and 
ruin  the  credit  of  such  as  speak  evil  of  you  by  accusing  them 
of  false  crimes '  —  Quidni  non  nisi  veniale  sit,  detrahentis 
auctoritatem  magnam  tibi  noxiam  falso  crimine  elidere  ? 
This  doctrine  is  so  current  amongst  you  that  whoever 
dares  to  attack  it  you  treat  as  an  ignoramus  and  a  stu- 
pid fellow." 

To  one  who  has  been  brought  up  in  a  Protestant  coun- 
try, and  who  is  happily  ignorant  of  those  unfathomable 
depths  of  Satan  into  which  the  system  of  Romanism  can 
sink  the  human  mind,  it  seems  impossible  that  any  body 
of  men  pretending  to  call  themselves  Christians  should  ever 
have  dared  to  teach  such  doctrines  of  devils,  or  could  have 
so  seared  their  consciences  with  a  hot  iron  as  thus  to  au- 
thorize and  sanction  the  grossest  slander,  and  even  to 


THE  JESUITS  ON  LYING.  115 

treat  as  an  ignoramus  and  a  stupid  fellow  whoever  dares 
to  attack  such  doctrines. 

Listen,  then,  to  the  unanswerable  proof  of  his  asser- 
tions which  Pascal  produces  :  — 

"  Not  long  ago  this  took  place  in  regard  to  Father  Qui- 
roga,  a  German  capuchin,  who  opposed  this  doctrine,  and 
was  immediately  attacked  by  Father  Dicastillus,  who 
speaks  of  this  dispute  in  these  terms,  (De  Just.,  1.  ii.  tr.  ii. 
disp.  xii.  n.  404  :)  '  A  certain  grave  friar,  barefooted  and 
deep  cowled,  —  cucuttatus,  gymnopoda,  —  whose  name  I  shall 
conceal,  had  the  temerity  to  decry  this  opinion  amongst 
some  women  and  ignorant  people  as  pernicious  and  scan- 
dalous, contrary  to  good  manners,  subversive  of  the  peace 
of  states  and  societies,  and  opposed,  not  only  to  all  the 
Catholic  doctors,  but  to  all  who  may  become  so.  But  I 
have  maintained  against  him,  and  still  maintain,  that  cal- 
umny, when  made  use  of  against  a  calumniator,  though  it 
be  a  lie,  yet  is  not  a  mortal  sin,  nor  contrary  to  justice 
or  charity  ;  and,  as  a  demonstration  of  this,  I  furnished 
him  with  a  crowd  of  our  fathers  and  whole  universities 
whom  I  consulted,  among  others  the  Rev.  Father  John 
Gans,  confessor  to  the  emperor  ;  the  Rev.  Father  Daniel 
Bastele,  confessor  to  the  Archduke  Leopold  ;  Father 
Henry,  who  was  the  tutor  of  these  two  princes :  all 
the  public  and  ordinary  professors  of  the  University  of 
Vienna,  (consisting  entirely  of  Jesuits  ;)  all  the  professors 
of  the  University  of  Gratz,  (all  Jesuits  ;)  all  the  professors 
of  the  University  of  Prague,  (of  which  the  Jesuits  are  mas- 
ters ;)  from  all  of  whom  I  have  in  my  possession  a  written, 
signed,  and  sealed  approbation  of  my  opinion  ;  in  addition 
to  which  I  have  Father  Pennalossa,  a  Jesuit,  preacher  to 
the  emperor  and  the  King  of  Spain  ;  Father  Piliiceroli,  a 
Jesuit  ;  and  many  others,  who  have  all  judged  this  opin- 
ion probable  previous  to  our  dispute.'  You  see,  fathers, 
there  are  few  opinions  which  you  have  taken  so  much 
pains  to  establish  ;  and,  in  fact,  there  are  few  which  are 
so  serviceable  to  you.  For  this  reason,  you  have  impressed 
so  much  authority  upon  it  that  your  casuists  have  made 
use  of  it  as  an  indubitable  principle.  '  It  is  certain/  says 


116         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Caramuel,  n.  1151,  'that  it  is  a  probable  opinion  that  it 
is  no  mortal  sin  to  bring  a  false  accusation  for  the  sake  of 
preserving  one's  honor  ;  for  it  is  maintained  by  upwards 
of  twenty  grave  doctors,  Gaspar  Hurtado,  Dicastillus,  &c. 
Hence,  if  this  doctrine  be  not  probable,  there  is  scarcely 
any  one  that  is  so  in  the  whole  system  of  divinity.' " 

Such  is  the  proof  adduced  by  Pascal ;  and  what  can  be 
more  overwhelming  ?  And  in  what  manner  did  the  Jesu- 
its reply  to  it  ?  In  an  attempt  to  answer  the  Provincial 
Letters,  published  in  Paris,  1659,  p.  342,  instead  of  condemn- 
ing Father  Dicastillus's  position,  THEY  ADDED  MORE  AUTHORI- 
TY TO  IT,  by  citing  several  authors,  besides  those  mentioned 
before,  in  defence  of  it. 

Let  any  one  now  reflect  on  the  length  and  breadth  of 
the  principles  involved  in  this  doctrine  of  the  Jesuits, 
and  he  will  fully  sympathize  with  Pascal  in  the  strong 
language  of  abhorrence  with  which  he  speaks  of  the 
system  :  — 

"  0,  what  an  execrable  system  is  this,  and  how  utterly 
corrupt  in  all  its  main  points  and  principles,  that  if  this 
doctrine  be  not  probable  and  safe  in  conscience,  '  that  a 
person  may  be  accused  falsely  in  order  to  preserve  one's 
honor,'  there  is  scarcely  any  one  that  is  !  What  can  be 
more  probable,  fathers,  than  that  those  who  hold  this  prin- 
ciple should  sometimes  put  it  in  practice  ?  The  depraved 
passions  of  mankind  hurry  them  on  with  such  impetuosity 
that  it  is  inconceivable,  when  all  conscientious  scruples  are 
done  away,  how  violently  they  proceed.  For  instance, 
Caramuel  writes  in  the  same  place,  '  This  maxim  of  Father 
Dicastillus  the  Jesuit,  respecting  calumny,  was  taught  by 
a  German  countess  to  the  daughter  of  the  empress,  who, 
believing  that  calumnies  were  but  venial  sins,  spread 
abroad  so  many  scandals  and  false  reports  every  day  that 
the  whole  court  was  put  into  a  state  of  ferment  and  alarm. 
It  is  easy  to  perceive  the  use  they  made  of  it ;  so  that,  to 
quiet  this  tumult,  it  was  found  necessary  to  apply  to  a 
good  father,  a  capuchin,  named  Quiroga,  of  exemplary 


THE   JESUITS   ON   LYING.  117 

conduct,  (which  was  the  reason  Father  Dicastillus  had 
such  a  quarrel  with  him,)  who  told  them  plainly  that  this 
maxim  was  very  pernicious,  especially  as  held  by  women, 
and  then  took  such  especial  care  that  the  empress  totally 
abolished  the  practice  of  it.' 

"  It  is  by  no  means  surprising  that  this  doctrine  should 
have  produced  some  bad  effects  ;  it  would  have  been  more 
so  had  it  been  otherwise.  Self-love  is  always  ready  to 
persuade  us  that  an  attack  made  upon  ourselves  is  unjust ; 
much  more  you,  fathers,  who  are  so  blinded  by  vanity  that 
you  would  make  all  the  world  believe,  from  your  writings, 
that  an  injury  attempted  against  your  writings  is  an  in- 
jury done  to  the  honor  of  the  church  ;  and  thus  it 
would  be  strange  if  you  were  not  to  pu£  this  maxim  in 
practice.  We  must  not  say,  as  those  who  do  not  know 
you  do,  How  is  it  these  good  fathers  calumniate  their 
enemies,  since  it  is  endangering  their  own  salvation  ?  But 
we  must  say,  on  the  contrary,  How  is  it  these  good  fa- 
thers would"  lose  any  opportunity  of  decrying  their  ene- 
mies when  they  can  do  it  without  risking  their  own  safety  ? 
Let  us,  then,  no  longer  be  astonished  at  finding  the  Jesuits 
calumniators.  They  are  so  with  a  safe  conscience,  and 
cannot  be  otherwise ;  since,  by  the  credit  they  have  ac- 
quired in  the  world,  they  may  revile  others  without  any 
apprehension  from  the  justice  of  men ;  and,  by  that  which, 
they  have  acquired  in  cases  of  conscience,  they  have  estab- 
lished maxims  by  which  they  are  empowered  to  do  as 
they  choose,  without  dreading  the  justice  of  God. 

Take  an  illustration  of  those  principles  from  the  same 

author : — 

"  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  occurred  in  your  disa- 
greement with  1L  Puys,  a  clergyman  of  St.  Nisier,  at 
Lyons  ;  and,  as  this  affair  furnishes  a  complete  illustration 
of  your  spirit,  I  shall  relate  the  principal  circumstances. 
You  kno\v,  fathers,  that  in  1649  M.  Puys  translated  an 
excellent  work,  written  by  another  capuchin,  into  French, 
'  On  the  Duty  of  Christians  to  their  own  Parishes  against 
those  who  wished  to  entice  them  away,'  without  using 
any  invectives,  and  without  either  pointing  to  any  religious 


118         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

order  or  individual.  Your  fathers,  however,  took  it  to 
themselves ;  and,  paying  no  respect  to  an  aged  pastor,  a 
judge  in  the  primacy  of  France,  and  much  honored  by  the 
whole  city,  your  Father  Alby  wrote  a  violent  philippic 
against  him,  which  you  yourselves  sold  in  your  churches 
on  Assumption  day  ;  in  which,  amongst  other  charges,  he 
was  accused  '  of  becoming  scandalous  by  his  gallantries, 
of  being  suspected  of  impiety,  of  being  a  heretic,  an  ex- 
communicated person,  and  deserving  to  be  burned  alive.' 
To  this  M.  Puys  replied ;  but  Father  Alby,  in  a  second 
publication,  persisted  in  his  former  recriminations.  Is  it 
not  then  evident,  fathers,  either  that  you  must  be  calumni- 
ators, or  that  you  believed  all  the  charges  brought  against 
the  good  priest,  and  therefore  that  it  was  needful  that 
you  should  have  seen  him  fully  exculpated  before  you 
deemed  him  worthy  of  your  friendship  ?  Attend  now  to 
what  passed  at  the  reconciliation,  in  presence  of  a  great 
multitude  of  the  most  distinguished  persons  of  the  city, 
whose  names  are  inserted  below  in  the  order  in  which 
they  were  placed  in  the  paper  drawn  up  on  the  25th  of 
September,  1650.*  In  the  presence  of  this  assembly  M. 
Puys  made  no  other  declaration  than  the  following : 
'  That  what  he  had  written  was  not  intended  for  the  Jesu- 
its ;  that  he  had  spoken  in  general  against  those  who 
seduce  the  faithful  from  their  parishes,  without  at  all 
meaning  to  attack  their  society,  for  which,  on  the  con- 
trary, he  cherished  a  high  regard.'  This  is  in  itself  suf- 
ficient in  regard  to  his  apostasy,  his  revilings,  and  his 
excommunications,  without  any  recantation  or  absolution. 
Father  Alby  afterwards  addressed  him  in  these  words  : 
'Sir,  my  conviction  that  you  attacked  the  society  to  which 
I  have  the  honor  to  belong  induced  me  to  take  up  my  pen 
to  answer  you,  and  I  thought  my  manner  of  doing  it  was 
allowable  ;  but  I  have  become  better  acquainted  with  your 

*  M.  De  Ville,  vicar  general  of  the  Cardinal  de  Lyon ;  M.  Scarron,  canon 
and  minister  of  St.  Paul's ;  M.  Margat,  chanter  ;  Messrs.  Bouvand,  Seve,  Au- 
bert,  and  Dervieu,  canons  of  St.  Nisier  ;  M.  du  Gue,  president  of  the  treasures 
of  France ;  M.  Groslier,  provost  of  the  merchants ;  M.  De  Flechere,  president 
and  lieutenant  general ;  Messrs.  De  Boissat,  De  St.  Komaiii,  and  De  Bartoly, 

fentlemen ;    M.  Burgeoise,  king's  chief  advocate  in  the  treasury  office  of 
'ranee ;  Messrs.  De  Cotton,  father  and  son ;  M.  Boniel ;  who  all  signed  the 
original  declaration  with  M.  Fuys  and  Father  Alby. 


THE  JESUITS  ON  LYING.  119 

intention.  I  now  declare  that  there  exists  nothing  which 
can  prevent  my  esteeming  you  as  a  person  of  very  en- 
lightened understanding,  of  a  profound  and  orthodox  faith, 
of  irreproachabk  morals,  and,  in  one  word,  a  worthy  pastor 
of  your  church.  This  declaration  I  make  with  high  satis- 
faction, and  beg  these  gentlemen  to  remember  it.' 

"  In  truth,  fathers,  these  gentlemen  remember  it  perfectly 
well,  and  were  more  offended  at  your  reconciliation  than  at 
your  quarrel.  For  who  does  not  admire  Father  Alby's 
speech  ?  He  does  not  say  that  he  retracts  on  account  of  dis- 
covering M.  Puys  has  changed  his  behavior  and  his  doctrine, 
but  merely '  because  he  found  that  it  was  not  his  intention  to 
attack  your  society  ;  so  that  there  is  nothing  to  prevent 
him  from  being  a  good  Catholic.'  He  did  not,  therefore, 
believe  him  to  be  a  heretic  at  all ;  nevertheless,  after 
accusing  him  of  it,  contrary  to  his  own  convictions,  he 
does  not  acknowledge  his  error,  but  dares,  on  the  contrary, 
to  affirm  '  that  he  believes  the  manner  in  which  he  used 
him  was  allowable.' 

"  My  good  fathers,  what  can  you  be  thinking  about  thus 
publicly  to  show  that  you  only  measure  the  faith  and  virtue 
of  mankind  by  their  opinions  of  your  society  ?  How  came 
it  to  pass  that  you  were  not  apprehensive  of  making 
people  believe,  by  your  own  confession,  that  you  were  im- 
postors and  calumniators?  What!  shall  the  very  same 
individual,  and  without  any  change  in  himself,  but  merely 
as  he  honors  or  opposes  your  society,  be  '  pious  or  impious, 
blameless  or  deserving  excommunication,  a  worthy  pastor 
of  the  church  or  fit  only  to  be  burned  ;  in  one  word,  a 
Catholic  or  a  heretic '  ?  To  oppose  your  society  and  to 
be  a  heretic  are  then,  in  your  language,  the  same  thing. 
A  pretty  kind  of  heresy  indeed !  So,  then,  whenever 
one  sees  in  your  writings  so  many  good  Catholics  called 
heretics,  the  meaning  is,  '  that  you  believe  them  to  be  in- 
imical to  you' " 

Nor  did  this  abominable  system,  thus  opening  the  flood- 
gates of  hell  to  pour  forth  all  conceivable  forms  of  slander 
on  the  world,  remain  a  dead  letter.  It  was  put  in  force  with 
incessant  energy  against  all  who  dared  to  leave  the  Romish 


120         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

corporation  to  oppose  the  Jesuits  and  to  aid  in  the  work 
of  exposing  their  abominations,  and  is  in  full  force  to  this 
day. 

I  shall  also  show  the  existence  of  the  same  spirit  and 
incipient  attempts  to  practise  on  the  same  principles 
among  us  so  far  as  they  dare. 

"We  have  not,  as  yet,  fully  entered  into  the  heart  of  the 
Papal  war,  and  have  not  yet  been  compelled  to  learn 
what  poisoned  weapons  of  moral  assassination  the  Jesuits 
and  other  leading  advocates  of  the  Papacy  have  in  other 
ages  used  without  scruple.  But  as  it  is  a  settled  point 
that  we  are  to  meet  that  system  in  one  more  conflict,  and 
that  the  last,  it  becomes  us  to  study  diligently  the  weapons 
with  which  it  has  always  fought  in  former  wars,  and  to  be 
strong  in  the  Lord  and  in  the  power  of  his  might  —  to  arm 
ourselves  against  it  with  the  whole  armor  of  God. 

There  is  the  more  reason  for  this,  inasmuch  as  the  Ro- 
mish corporation  has  recently  sanctioned  and  adopted  the 
morality  of  the  Jesuits,  which  was  rendered  justly  infa- 
mous in  Europe  by  the  exposure  of  its  enormities  and 
abominations  made  by  Pascal.  This  system,  with  all  its 
diabolism,  is  incorporated  in  the  works  of  St.  Alphonso 
de  Liguori ;  but  these  works  are  solemnly  sanctioned  by 
the  Romish  corporation,  if  we  may  trust  Dr.  Wiseman. 
He  tells  us  that  his  works  "do  not  contain  any  propo- 
sition .that  is  pernicious,  erroneous,  or  rash,"  and  that 
"the  morals  of  this  saintly  bishop  cannot  be  censured 
without  setting  up  as  a  censor  of  authority  itself, — with- 
out, in  fine,  censuring  the  decisions  of  the  holy  see."  The 
morals  of  this  diabolical  saint  justify  assassination,  and 
open  murder  in  certain  "cases,  as  well  as  lying  and  per- 
jury. Never,  therefore,  were  the  morals  of  Rome  so  dia- 
bolical as  at  this  hour. 


CHAPTER    XII. 


CAUTIONS  TO  AMERICANS  IN  VIEW  OF  MODERN  EXEMPLIFI- 
CATIONS  OF  THE   PRINCIPLES   OF   LYING  AND   PERJURY. 


IF,  in  view  of  all  the  preceding  statements,  any  one 
should  say,  After  all,  these  are  ancient  principles  and 
facts  ;  things  are  now  changed  for  the  better  :  it  is  not 
charitable  or  honorable  to  suppose  that  Romish  bishops  or 
laymen  among  us  will  deem  it  a  merit  to  lie  or  perjure 
themselves  for  purposes  of  ecclesiastical  utility,  —  I  would 
request  him,  before  coming  to  this  conclusion,  to  open  his 
eyes  on  some  very  instructive  and  significant  facts,  most 
of  them  of  modern  date. 

The  idea  that  any  Romanist  will  take  oaths  of  allegiance 
to  our  country  that  he  does  not  mean  to'keep  is  often  re- 
pudiated as  a  slanderous  imputation  on  honorable  men. 
They  say  this  under  the  influence  of  their  own  Protestant 
views,  not  reflecting  that  Romanism  not  only  justifies,  but 
encourages,  such  false  swearing  for  the  good  of  the  church. 
If  any  are  incredulous,  then  let  them  consider  the  case 
of  Judge  Gaston,  a  distinguished  Romanist  of  North 
Carolina. 

The  facts  of  the  case  are  these  :  The  constitution  of 
that  state  was  made  when  all  intelligent  men  coincided 
with  the  views  expressed  by  the  Continental  Congress 
in  an  address  to  the  people  o£  Great  Britain,  dated  Oc- 
tober 31,  1774. 

11  (12D 


122  THE  .PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

In  this,  after  expostulating  against  the  favor  shown  to 
the  Romanists  of  Canada  as  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of 
the  Protestant  colonies,  they  say,  "  Nor  can  we  suppress 
our  astonishment  that  a  British  Parliament  should  ever 
consent  to  establish  in  that  country  A  RELIGION  THAT  HAS 
DELUGED  YOUR  ISLAND  IN  BLOOD,  and  dispersed  IMPIETY, 

BIGOTRY,     PERSECUTION,    MURDER,    AND    REBELLION    through 

every  part  of  the  world."  So  thought  the  patriots  of  the 
revolution. 

Under  the  influence  of  such  convictions,  the  framers  of 
the  constitution  of  North  Carolina  determined  to  exclude 
Romanists  from  office  in  that  state,  and  inserted  an  article 
to  that  effect.  The  facts  as  to  Judge  Gaston  I  give  in  the 
words  of  Dr.  Breckenridge,  in  his  able  work  entitled 
Papism  in  the  United  States  in  the  Nineteenth  Century. 
After  stating  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
citizens  of  the  state  and  one  of  her  ablest  lawyers,  he 
says, — 

"  By  the  constitution  of  North  Carolina,  he  is  expressly 
disqualified  to  hold  the  office  he  occupies,  precisely  because 
he  chooses  to  be  a  Catholic.  In  the  thirty-second  article  it 
is  thus  written  :  '  That  no  person  who  shall  deny  the  being 

Of  God,   OR   THE    TRUTH   OF    THE    PROTESTANT   RELIGION,    Or 

the  divine  authority  either  of  the  Old  or  New  Testaments, 
or  u'ho  shall  hold  religious  principles  incompatible  with  the 
freedom,  and  safety  of  the  state,  shall  be  capable  of  holding 
any  office,  or  place  of  trust  or  profit,  in  the  civil  govern- 
ment within  this  state.'  Now,  Mr.  Gaston  is  at  this 
moment  a  judge  of  the  Court  of  Appeals  of  North  Caro- 
lina. Before  he  took  his  seat  on  the  bench,  he  took  an 
oath  in  some  usual  form  to  support  the  constitution  of  that 
state.  Part  of  that  constitution  asserts  and  assumes  the 
truth  of  the  Protestant  religion.  But  Mr.  Gaston  is  an 
avowed  and  most  decided  Papist.  Now,  will  he  do  him- 
self the  justice,  mankind  -the  favor,  and  his  religion  the 
service  of  explaining  this  conduct  ? 


CAUTIONS  TO  AMERICANS.  123 

"  Mr.  Gaston  has  sworn  to  maintain  '  THE  TRUTH  OP  THE 
PROTESTANT  RELIGION  ;'  he  has  sworn  to  maintain  a  con- 
stitution which  disqualifies  him  the  moment  he  shall 
'  deny  the  truth  of  the,  Protestant  religion  ;  '  and  yet  he  is 
confessedly  a  Papist  —  a  believer  in  all  the  necessary 
dogmas,  and  a  member  in  full  exercise  of  all  the  privileges, 
of  that  faith  which  the  creed  of  Pope  Pius  IV.  pronounces 
to  be  exclusive  not  only,  but  indispensable  to  salvation  — 
that  church  which  declares  itself  to  be,  and  which  all  who 
repeat  its  creed  promise  and  swear  to  maintain  as,  the 
' mother  and  MISTRESS'  of  all  churches,  and  to  use  all 
diligence,  by  all  means  in  their  power,  to  spread  all  around 
them.  In  the  name  of  common  honesty,  how  could  Judge 
Gaston  assent  to  the  creed  of  Pope  Pius  IV.,  which  is  the  au- 
thorized creed  of  his  church,  and  at  the  same  time  assent  to 
the  provision  quoted  above  from  the  constitution  of  North 
Carolina  ?  Can  a  man  swear  with  a  good  conscience  to 
opposite  facts,  statements,  and  opinions  ?  " 

After  a  full  discussion  of  the  subject,  he  comes  to  this 
conclusion  :  — 

"  If  I  had  acted  as  Judge  Gaston  has,  my  sect  would 
have  deposed  me  from  the  ministry,  my  congregation 
would  have  shut  my  church  doors  against  me,  my  friends 
would  have  wept  over  me  as  one  undone,  and  the  whole 
world  would  have  had  but  one  opinion  about  it ;  and  that 
opinion  would  have  been,  that  I  was  a  degraded  man. 
Then  why  not  mete  the  same  measure  to  Judge  Gaston  ? 
I  will  tell  you  why.  It  is  because  Judge  Gaston  is  a  Papist  j 
and  his  creed  admits  and  approves  his  conduct.  Arid,  there- 
fore, let  every  man  that  loves  God  pity  and  forgive  Judge 
Gaston,  and  frown  down  his  pestiferous  superstition,  as 
the  parent  of  all  vice  and  the  enemy  of  every  virtue." 

The  criminal  apathy  of  the  press  on  a  point  so  momen- 
tous he  thus  explains  :  — 

"  Is  the  public  press  already  Catholic,  or  infidel  ?  Is  the 
whole  editorial  corps  converted,  subsidized,  afraid,  or 


124        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

totally  indifferent  ?  No  ;  this  is  by  no  means  so.  If  a 
Methodist  judge  should  take  a  false  oath,  or  a  Presbyte- 
rian judge  commit  a  flagrant  violation  of  morality,  or  an 
Episcopal  judge  outrage  public  decency,  or  a  Deistical 
judge  be  guilty  of  deliberate  perfidy  in  official  affairs, —  in 
all  these  cases  the  public  press  would  fully  respond  to  the 
public  feeling,  and  the  judge  would  be  disgraced,  if  not 
degraded.  Why  deal  out  a  different  measure  to  a  Catholic 
judge?  I  will  tell  you  why.  It  is  because  every  Catholic 
in  the  world  makes  common  cause  with  every  other 
Catholic  in  the  world,  and  with  the  Pope  of  Rome,  as  the 
head  of  all  the  world,  and  with  the  Catholic  church,  as  the 
mother  and  mistress  of  all  the  churches  in  the  world. 
Virtue  is  nothing,  truth  is  nothing,  religion  is  nothing, 
country  is  nothing,  liberty  is  nothing  ;  the  church  is  ALL, 
and  the  pope  its  head  ;  and  all  its  true  members  form  one 
universal  conspiracy  against  every  good  of  man  and  the 
honor  of  God  himself.  Printers  feel  the  force,  though 
they  may  deny  the  reality,  of  this  conspiracy." 

The  case  of  Judge  Gaston  is  fearfully  significant.  His 
church  has  solemnly  decided  that  an  oath  contrary  to 
ecclesiastical  utility  is  not  binding.  He  simply  believes 
the  church,  and  acts  accordingly  ;  or  else,  according  to 
the  Jesuits,  he  swears,  not  intending  to  do  what  he  swears. 

And  what  oath  or  promise  is  there  that  these  same 
principles  will  not  dissolve  ?  No  matter  who  it  is,  whether 
bishop  or  layman,  who  swears  allegiance  to  a  national  or 
a  state  government,  his  oath  does  not  bind  him  in  any 
case  in  which  the  pope  or  the  bishops  shall  decide  that 
ecclesiastical  utility  requires  its  violation. 

On  the  same  principles,  any  Romanist,  whether  layman 
or  ecclesiastic,  can  profess  to  be  a  Protestant,  and  join  any 
Protestant  church,  for  the  sake  of  acting  the  more  ef- 
fectually to  undermine  Protestantism  and  to  extend  the 
power  of  the  Papacy.  There  is  the  best  ground  to  believe 
that  this  has  been  done  in  the  English  Protestant  church 


CAUTIONS  TO  AMERICANS.  12-5 

on  a  great  scale.  Why  should  it  not  be  so  ?  According 
to  the  supreme  authority  of  the  church,  and  Jesuit  morality 
also,  it  is  so  far  from  being  wrong  that  it  is  highly  meri- 
torious. In  the  same  way  men  or  women  may  assume  any 
disguise,  and  act  under  any  profession,  in  order  to  subserve 
the  interests  of  the  church. 

On  the  same  ground,  a  Romish  bishop  may  in  the  most 
solemn  and  public  manner  proclaim  as  true  and  undeniable 
what  he  knows  to  be  utterly  false  ;  as,  for  example,  in  the 
case  of  a  public  discussion. 

Thus  Bishop  Purcell,  in  his  controversy  in  Cincinnati  with 
A.  Campbell,  denied  in  the  most  solemn  manner  that  a 
passage  quoted  by  Campbell  from  a  compend  of  the  morals 
of  St.  Liguori  was  ever  written  by  him.  He  said  to  the 
audience,  "  I  now  pledge  myself  to  show  to  every  man  of 
honor  in  this  city  that  the  last  allegation  read  by  the 
gentleman,  purporting  to  be  from  the  works  of  Liguori,  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  works  of  that  writer.  It  is  all  a 
base  fabrication,  I  will  not  say  of  Mr.  C.,  but  of  somebody. 
I  will  meet  this  charge  with  a  complete  and  an  overwhelm- 
ing refutation."  Much  more  of  the  same  kind  of  declama- 
tion he  employed,  and  produced  the  desired  effect  for  the 
time.  But  what  was  the  fact  ?  It  was  proved,  after  the 
debate  was  over  and  there  had  been  time  to  hear  from 
New  York  from  the  author  of  the  compend,  that  it  was  in 
the  works  of  Liguori,  and  was  properly  translated.  It 
was  found  in  the  bishop's  own  copy.  This  extract,  how- 
ever, revealed  the  fact,  that  although  the  church  will  ex- 
communicate a  priest  for  marrying  a  wife,  yet  the  council 
of  Trent  only  imposed  fines  on  those  priests  who  kept  con- 
cubines ;  and  Liguori  taught  that  a  bishop  ought  to  appro- 
priate these  finesybr  pious  uses  !  It  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  the  bishop's  ideas  of  ecclesiastical  utility  led  him 
to  feel  that  it  was  desirable,  at  least  during  the  debate,  to 
11* 


126        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

break  the  force  of  such  statements  of  Liguori,  and  there- 
fore he  indignantly  called  them  a  base  fabrication.  (See 
Debate,  pp.  219,  253,  and  note  at  the  end.)  This  is  the 
same  bishop  who  used  to  manifest  great  zeal  for  the  public 
schools  of  Cincinnati  before  the  people,  when  at  the  same 
time  he  was  writing  to  Europe  denunciations  of  them  as 
pernicious  and  dangerous.  That  he  was  so  doing  became 
manifest  by  the  publication  of  one  or  more  of  his  letters 
in  Europe,  which  found  their  way  to  this  country,  and  were 
translated  and  published  for  the  benefit  of  the  good  peo- 
ple of  Cincinnati.  The  pope,  of  course,  saw  fit  to  remove 
him,  after  this  exposure,  to  some  other  post  of  honor,  and 
no  doubt  rewarded  him  for  his  zeal  in  behalf  of  ecclesi- 
astical utility. 

In  like  manner  Pope  Pius  VI.  did  not  hesitate  to  lie  in 
order  to  remove  the  odium  of  the  doctrines  of  the  church 
in  Great  Britain.  As  quoted  by  Bishop  Kenrick,  p.  471 
Primacy,  he  says,  —  not  ex  cathedra  and  in  his  own  name, 
be  it  noticed,  but  through  Cardinal  Antonelli,  —  "  The  see 
of  Rome  never  taught  that  faith  is  not  to  be  kept  with 
the  heterodox  ;  that  an  oath  to  kings  separated  from  the 
Catholic  communion  can  be  violated  ;  that  it  is  lawful  for 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  to  invade  their  temporal  rights  and 
dominions."  Now,  even  if  the  pope  had  said  this  ex  ca- 
thedra it  would  be  of  no  force,  for  it  is  a  mere  assertion 
as  to  historical  facts,  and  he  is  not  held  even  by  Roman- 
ists to  be  infallible  as  to  such  facts,  but  only  as  to  doc- 
trines and  principles  of  faith  ;  and  it  is  merely  a  denial 
of  facts  as  notorious  as  his  own  existence.  He  might  as 
well  have  said  that  Luther,  and  Calvin,  and  the  reforma- 
tion never  existed  as  to  make  the  notoriously  false  state- 
ment above  quoted. 

But  it  was  done  for  the  sake  of  aiding  the  Romanists 
of  Great  Britain  in  their  struggles  for  civil  power  and 


CAUTIONS  TO  AMERICANS.  127 

privileges  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  a  pope  should  not 
lie  for  ecclesiastical  utility  as  -well  as  any  other  bishop  or 
any  layman. 

Thus,  also,  we  explain  the  fact  that  the  deaths  of  Cal- 
vin, Luther,  Zwingle,  (Ecolampadius.  and  Carolstadt  were 
deliberately  and  grossly  misrepresented  by  leading  Pa- 
pists. It  was  done  on  grounds  of  ecclesiastical  utility,  in 
order  to  convey  to  their  own  party  the  idea  that  these 
enemies  of  Popery  died  as  heretics  beneath  the  manifest 
wrath  of  God.  Bishop  Stratford  has  written  a  large  and 
able  tract,  designed  to  expose  and  refute  these  most  atro- 
cious falsehoods.  But  such  men  as  Cardinal  Bellarmine 
the  Jesuit,  and  others  concerned  in  this  work  of  slander, 
were  simply  carrying  out  the  doctrine  of  their  own  order 
as  to  slander,  and  of  the  church  as  to  lying  for  ecclesias- 
tical utility. 

For  the  same  reason,  at  Rome  the  Jesuit  teachers  of 
Raffaele  Ciocci,  as  he  informs  us,  constantly  told  him, 
when  a  youth,  "  that  the  Protestants  did  not  worship 
Christ ;  that  they  slaughtered  each  other  daily  like  fero- 
cious beasts  ;  that  they  put  the  Roman  Catholics  to  death ; 
that  they  attended  to  no  civil  restrictions,  but  continually 
lived  in  a  state  of  anarchy.  These  misrepresentations, 
these  diabolical  assertions,  were  received  by  me  as  in- 
controvertible truths."  (See  his  Narrative,  p.  13.) 

Also  in  a  monastery  the  monks  suppressed  his  letters  to 
his  parents,  and  theirs  to  him,  and  forged  a  correspond- 
ence on  both  sides,  in  order  to  induce  him  to  sign  a 
deed  giving  all  his  property  to  the  monastery.  —  Narra- 
tive, pp.  39-46. 

On  the  same  principles,  all  nuns  that  escape  from  con- 
vents are  declared  insane,  and  any  kind  of  falsehood  is 
resorted  to  to  entrap  and  abduct  those  who  forsake  their 
faith.  The  case  of  Hannah  Corcoran,  of  Charlestown, 


128         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Massachusetts,  will  illustrate  this  statement.  She  was 
carried  off  for  choosing  to  become  a  Protestant.  Neither 
priests  nor  relations  knew  where  she  was  ;  but  when  it  be- 
came evident  that  an  indignant  community  would  not  hold 
them  guiltless  she  was  soon  found  and  restored.  And 
through  all  the  case  there  was  no  scruple  to  use  false- 
hood to  any  extent. 

On  the  same  principles,  promises  are  freely  made  not  to 
interfere  with  the  religious  principles  of  the  children  of 
Protestants  in  their  schools,  which  are  of  course  violated 
without  scruple  ;  and  children  have  even  been  taught  to 
deceive  their  parents,  in  order  to  avoid  their  opposition  or 
censure. 

We  shall  never  understand  such  facts  until  we  fully 
comprehend  their  doctrines  as  to  lying  as  I  have  ex- 
plained them.  Their  system  so  debases  and  corrupts 
their  moral  sense  that  they  regard  the  most  atrocious 
lying  for  "  ecclesiastical  utility  "  as  not  merely  no  sin,  but 
a  positive  merit. 

At  the  time  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot  in  England,  de- 
signed to  blow  up  and  destroy  the  king  and  House  of 
Lords  and  Commons,  Catesby,  one  of  the  conspirators, 
consulted  Father  Garnet,  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits, 
whether  "  it  were  lawful  to  promote  the  good  of  the  Ro- 
man cause  by  destroying  some  innocent  among  many 
guilty."  Garnet  answered,  "If  the  advantage  of  the 
Catholic  cause  were  greater  by  destroying  some  innocent 
with  many  guilty,  it  was  certainly  lawful  to  kill  and  de- 
stroy them  all." 

As  to  the  propriety  of  blowing  up  the  Protestants,  it 
seems,  there  could  be  no  doubt.  The  only  question  was, 
Was  it  right  to  blow  up  a  few  Romanists  also  who  would 
be  present?  His  reply  we  have  seen.  Ecclesiastical  util- 
ity outweighed  all  else. 


CAUTIONS  TO   AMERICANS.  129 

When  arrested  and  tried  for  treason  as  an  accomplice 
in  the  plot,  he  alleged  that  he  received  the  knowledge  of 
the  plot  in  confession,  and  therefore  could  not  lawfully 
reveal  it.  It  was  proved,  however,  that  he  did  not  re- 
ceive the  knowledge  of  it  in  confession. 

He  also  solemnly  declared  on  his  priesthood  that  he 
had  had  no  correspondence  with  Greenwell  (a  conspira- 
tor) since  they  had  met  at  Caughton.  Yet  at  this  very 
time  the  judges  had  in  their  hands  letters  of  his  which  he 
had  written  to  Greenwell  since  that  time.  On  seeing  the 
letters  he  confessed  the  fact,  but,  when  censured,  defended 
his  perjury  on  the  principles  of  his  order,  as  right.  He 
died,  moreover,  with  another  lie  in  his  mouth,  and  secretly 
wrote  to  his  friends  to  lie  for  him  after  his  death.  In  all 
this  he  was  but  following  the  rule  of  ecclesiastical  utility 
and  the  Jesuit  code  of  morals,  and  was  esteemed  in  other 
respects  as  a  learned,  amiable,  and  eminent  man.  But  his 
system  brought  him  to  the  death  of  a  perjured  traitor. 

But  why  should  I  continue  the  painful  work  of  illustra- 
tion and  proof?  Call  to  mind  the  holy  coat  of  Treves ; 
call  to  mind  the  pretended  miracles  of  modern  times  ;  call 
to  mind  the  deceptions  as  to  relics  and  hallowed  medals, 
with  power  to  avert  or  cure  diseases. 

The  ecclesiastics  who  do  these  things  are  not  ignorant 
men.  They  know  better.  They  delude  and  defraud  the 
people  on  principle  and  systematically.  Hardly  can  we 
call  such  frauds  pious  frauds.  They  better  merit  the  name 
of  barefaced  swindling.  And  yet  even  Romish  bishops  do 
not  hesitate  to  engage  in  such  proceedings,  and  to  use  all 
their  power  to  deceive  and  gull  the  simple  and  ignorant 
masses,  who  look  up  to  them  for  instruction  as  to  the  ora- 
cles of  God. 

Not  only,  then,  do  the  Romish  ecclesiastics  adopt  the 
principle,  that  for  their  own  interests  they  may  dissolve 


130         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  bonds  of  right  and  honesty  to  those  without,  but,  by 
the  use  of  fraud  and  delusion  towards  their  own  ignorant 
populace  for  purposes  of  power  or  gain,  they  place  their 
own  interests  above  theirs  also,  and  thus  above  those  of 
the  whole  human  race. 

"We  shall  more  clearly  see  the  truth  of  this  statement 
when  we  have  contemplated  the  fact,  that  from  the  very 
outset  the  foundations  of  their  power  have  been  laid  in 
forgery  and  fraud. 

Nothing  gives  such  an  idea  of  the  patience  of  God  as 
the  thought  that  he  has  so  long  endured  such  a  system 
and  such  men. 


PAET     II. 

ROMANISM  THE   ENEMY  OF  MANKIND. 


CHAPTER    I. 

THE  CASE  STATED.  — PRINCIPLES  OF  JUDGMENT. 

A  CORPORATION  which  arrogates  to  itself  so  exclusively 
the  favor  of  God  ;  which  regards  all  Protestants  as  pa- 
gans ;  which,  for  the  crime  of  rejecting  its  claims,  disfran- 
chises them,  and  has  shed  the  blood  of  millions, —  ought  at 
least  to  have  some  peculiar  and  preeminent  merits  of  its 
own.  It  ought,  in  theory,  to  tend  to  good  ;  and,  after  a 
trial  of  more  than  ten  centuries,  it  ought  to  have  left  evi- 
dence of  the  reality  and  power  of  that  tendency  in  the 
records  of  history. 

As  this  corporation  is  constantly  thrusting  itself  on  the 
attention  of  this  nation  as  the  only  hope  of  humanity,  and 
avows  its  purpose,  as  soon  as  it  has  power,  to  expel  and 
to  exterminate  Protestantism,  it  will  not  be  amiss  if  we 
subject  it  to  a  rigid  and  thorough  scrutiny. 

The  principles  of  such  a  scrutiny  are  simple  and  ob- 
vious. "We  are  to  consider,  not  the  pretences  of  its  parti- 

(131) 


132         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

sans,  but  its  internal  structure,  its  mode  of  operation,  its 
tendencies,  and  its  results.  If  a  company  of  inquisitors 
were  to  introduce  into  this  city  various  instruments  of 
torture  such  as  the  fertile  genius  of  the  Romish  corpora- 
tion has  so  abundantly  devised,  and  carry  them  to  a  large 
building  recently  erected,  calling  them,  at  the  same  time, 
musical  instruments,  it  is  probable  that  such  a  name  would 
exert  but  little  influence  in  satisfying  the  mind  of  the  com- 
munity of  the  benevolent  nature  of  their  designs,  in  erect- 
ing the  building  and  introducing  the  instruments.  They 
would  consider  their  structure,  their  mode  of  operation, 
their  tendencies,  and  natural  results.  They  would,  after 
considering  these  points,  probably  conclude  that  they  were 
instruments  of  torture,  and  that  the  only  music  that  would 
ever  be  produced  by  them  would  be  that  of  groans  and 
shrieks  of  agony. 

So  it  should  be  little  to  us  that  the  Romish  corporation 
calls  itself  a  church,  and  professes  to  aim  at  promoting 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  man.  In  a  case  of 
so  much  moment,  we  should  not  be  deceived  by  names  and 
pretences.  We  ought  thoroughly  to  examine  the  struc- 
ture of  the  system  itself,  notice  its  tendencies,  and  inquire 
what  it  has  in  fact  done  during  its  long  history. 

To  prevent  all  misunderstanding,  however,  it  is  neces- 
sary at  this  point  to  remark  that  we  are  to  view  the  sys- 
tem of  Romanism  in  reference  to  those  things  which  it  has 
in  distinction  from  and  in  opposition  to  Protestantism, 
laying  out  of  the  account  any  doctrines  that  it  has  in  com- 
mon with  Protestantism. 

This  is  but  equitable  ;  for  any  good  which  may  result 
from  such  doctrines  as  it  has  in  common  with  Protestant- 
ism certainly  ought  not  to  be  set  down  to  its  credit  as 
Romanism  ;  for  it  exists,  not  on  account  of  the  peculiar- 
ities of  Romanism,  but  in  spite  of  them. 


THE    CASE   STATED. — PRINCIPLES   OF   JUDGMENT.       133 

Thus,  though  Romanism  avows  a  belief  of  the  being  of 
a  God,  and  receives  the  Bible  as  his  word,  and  has  in  its 
doctrinal  system  many  elements  of  truth  which  may  be  so 
arranged  as  to  meet  the  wants  of  holy  minds,  yet  this  is 
nothing  to  its  credit  as  Romanism ;  for  the  doctrine  con- 
cerning God,  and  the  Bible,  and  the  same  elements  of  truth 
are-found  without  that  system  among  the  Protestants,  and 
operate  there  with  much  greater  energy,  and  with  less  to 
counteract  their  power. 

Indeed,  the  power  of  Romanism  to  do  evil  is  augment- 
ed by  the  fact  that  it  has  in  it  so  much  truth.  This  truth 
is,  if  we  may  so  say,  in  a  state  of  captivity  to  the  Romish 
hierarchy,  and  is  used  by  them  to  gain  their  own  ends. 
They  use  it  to  give  authority  to  their  system. 

By  means  of  it  they  fit  up  some  rooms  in  the  great  Ba- 
bel in  which  holy  men  can  dwell  and  worship  God,  though 
in  captivity.  Meantime  the  existence  of  such  good  men 
under  the  system  is  used  to  give  it  influence.  They  are 
as  stool  pigeons  to  draw  others  into  the  snare. 

It  is  a  part  of  the  policy  of  the  system  to  introduce  all 
manner  of  inconsistent  or  contradictory  views  for  va- 
rious minds.  Hence,  though  it  contains  many  of  the  fun- 
damental doctrines  of  Protestantism  for  the  pious,  yet 
none  the  less  does  it  introduce  for  other  classes  other  doc- 
trines which  neutralize  or  contradict  them.  And,  if  the 
contradictions  are  pointed  out,  it  covers  them  up  by  the 
plea  of  mystery. 

But,  passing  from  what  it  has  in  common  with  Protes- 
tantism, let  us  consider  what  is  peculiarly  its  own. 

Let  us,  then,  look  at  the  system,  stripping  off  its  sancti- 
monious phraseology,  and  testing  it  by  an  impartial  con- 
sideration of  its  tendencies  and  results. 
12 


\ 


CHAPTER    II. 


POPERY  A  RELIGION,  A  TRADING  CORPORATION    AND  A 
GOVERNMENT. 


IF  we  examine  carefully  the  system  of  Romanism,  in  its 
theory  and  in  its  practice,  we  shall  discover  a  curious 
triple  combination,  composed  of  a  religion,  a  trading  cor- 
poration, and  a  government. 


POPERY  A  RELIGION. 

The  great  idea  of  the  corporation  as  a  religious  body 
is,  that  it  has  an  absolute  and  exclusive  authority  to  con- 
fer the  grace  of  God,  as  displayed  in  the  pardon  of  sin 
and  the  gift  of  eternal  life.  This  grace  it  dispenses 
through  certain  agents,  who  alone  are  empowered  to  con- 
fer it  and  whose  grace  alone  is  genuine.  All  other  pre- 
tended grace  is  spurious  and  counterfeit. 

Again  :  this  grace  is  communicated  through  various 
forms,  or  processes,  called  sacraments,  and  through  the 
profession  of  a  certain  creed,  and  through  confession  to 
one  of  their  agents,  called  a  priest,  who  has  full  power 
from  God,  through  them,  to  forgive  sins,  and  to  impose 
penances  as  the  condition. 

So  far  the  system  has  the  aspect  of  a  religion.  If,  now, 
all  this  were  done  freely,  and  not  as  a  means  of  obtaining 

(134) 


POPERY  A  RELIGION,  A  TRADING   CORPORATION,  ETC.      135 

money,  the  aspect  of  a  trading  company  would  not  be 
seen.    But  such  is  not  the  fact. 


POPERY  A  TRADING  CORPORATION. 

In  all  ages  this  system  has  been  used  as  a  means  of  ac- 
cumulating immense  sums  of  money  in  return  for  the  grace 
of  God,  of  which  it  has  the  entire  monopoly.  This  grace 
reaches,  not  merely  to  this  life,  but  to  an  indefinite  period 
beyond  this  life,  in  which  the  soul  is  neither  in  heaven  nor 
in  hell,  but  somewhere  between,  in  a  place  of  torment 
called  purgatory.  Besides  the  common  grace  of  God, 
this  corporation  has  laid  up  an  inexhaustible  store  of  the 
merits  of  all  saints  beyond  what  was  needed  for  their 
own  salvation  ;  and  of  these  merits,  also,  they  have  the 
entire  monopoly.  Thus,  by  masses,  and  the  application  of 
these  merits,  and  by  prayers  for  the  dead,  they  can  deliver 
souls  from  purgatory  ;  and  for  a  reasonable  compensation 
they  are  always  ready  to  do  it.  This  gives  them  great 
power  at  sick  beds,  and  over  the  wills  of  dying  men  and 
women,  and  over  the  purses  of  living  relatives  and  friends. 
They  have,  also,  various  other  sources  of  profit  from  the 
living,  in  the  form  of  indulgences  for  sin  ;  scapularies,  as 
defences  against  all  evils  ;  masses  of  every  variety  and 
for  every  purpose  ;  dispensations  from  fasts  ;  removals  of 
impediments  to  marriage  ;  miraculous  medals  ;  various  de- 
fences against  the  devil ;  grace  through  the  images  or  rel- 
ics of  patron  saints,  especially  on  their  annual  festivals ; 
and  numerous  other  similar  devices'.  It  will  be  found  that 
all  the  peculiar  doctrines  and  practices  of  Popery  have  a 
wonderful  adaptation  to  produce  immense  pecuniary  profit. 
Thus,  at  the  anniversaries  of  saints,  all  who  visit  their 
shrines  are  not  to  expect  grace  unless  they  deposit  offer- 


136         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

ings.  In  like  manner,  the  grace  of  relics  is  most  abundant 
towards  the  most  liberal  contributors.  One  recent  in- 
stance will  cast  light  on  this  matter.  The  celebrated 
prelate,  Arnold  of  Treves,  and  his  priests,  are  said  to  have 
received  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  six  months  from 
offerings  made  in  order  to  obtain  a  portion  of  the  grace 
stored  up  in  the  holy  coat.  Eighty  thousand  medals  of 
the  Virgin,  full  of  the  same  grace,  were  also  sold,  and  also 
ribbons,  bits  of  cloth,  cotton,  and  silk  which  had  touched 
the  holy  coat,  and  thus  derived  a  portion  of  its  salutary 
power.  All  the  old  rags  in  the  neighborhood  of  Treves 
were  thus  sold  for  their  weight  in  gold.  The  total  value 
of  this  particular  adventure  is  estimated  at  three  hundred 
thousand  dollars. 

It  is  to  be  understood  that  the  Romish  corporation  has 
the  monopoly  of  this  department  of  gracious  influence  also, 
and  that  no  bones,  hair,  skulls,  chairs,  coats,  ribbons,  medals, 
cloth,  cotton,  and  silk  are  genuine  except  those  which 
come  from  their  manufactory.  I  have  mentioned  other 
important  departments  of  traffic  equally  profitable,  or 
even  more  so. 

Here,  then,  opens  upon  us  the  view  of  an  immense  com- 
merce carried  on  for  ages,  the  statistics  of  which  have 
never  yet  been  reported.  But  it  is  well  known  that,  at  the 
time  of  the  reformation,  this  corporation  and  their  agents 
had  gained  possession  of  half,  and  sometimes  of  three 
quarters,  of  the  property  of  the  various  states  of  Europe. 
Nor  is  there  any  question  that,  if  the  details  were  known, 
it  would  be  found  that  the  commerce  of  Tyre,  of  Carthage, 
of  Venice,  of  the  Hanse  Towns,  of  the  East  India  Compa- 
ny, and  of  all  other  trading  companies  whatever  has  been 
quite  thrown  into  the  shade  by  the  traffic  of  this  great 
corporation.  Hence  in  .prophecy  its  downfall  is  repre- 
sented under  the  symbol  of  the  ruin  of  an  immense  com- 
mercial city. 


POPERY  A  RELIGION,  A  TRADING   CORPORATION,  ETC.      137 


POPERY  A  GOVERNMENT. 

Viewing  this  corporation  as  a  government,  the  aspect 
of  things  is  no  less  impressive.  The  head  of  the  corpora- 
tion is  both  a  spiritual  and  a  temporal  ruler.  He  claims 
to  be  monarch  of  all  monarchs.  His  senate  of  cardinals 
and  electors  are  princes.  His  bishops  also  are  lords  each 
in  his  diocese,  but  are  still  his  vassals,  bound  to  him  by  a 
feudal  oath.  To  him  also  are  bound  the  rulers  of  the 
Jesuits  and  of  the  various  orders  of  monks  and  nuns,  who 
are  an  all-pervading  soldiery,  sworn  to  do  his  will.  To 
the  bishops  also  are  subjected  the  secular  priests,  and  to 
them  are  subjected  the  people.  Thus  the  whole  system  is 
one  compact  and  all-pervading  government,  the  rule  of 
which  is  absolute  obedience  to  the  central  power  and  its 
agents  in  regular  subordination.  It  is  an  immense  army 
under  military  discipline. 
12* 


CHAPTER    III. 


OPEEATION  AND  EFFECTS  OF  THE  SYSTEM. 

LET  us  now  study  the  operation  of  this  corporation  on 
the  mind.  And,  first  of  all,  it  is  evident  that  in  religious 
matters  it  puts  itself  in  God's  place.  God  could,  no  doubt, 
if  he  pleased,  reveal  himself  and  impart  grace  to  individ- 
uals out  of  this  corporation  ;  but  he  will  not.  He  has  de- 
termined not  to  act  except  through  this  visible  corpora- 
tion. No  one  can  have  any  thing  to  do  with  him  but 
through  them.  All  the  world  outside  of  them  is  empty 
of  divine  grace.  There  is  no  sunshine  there.  All  is  dark 
as  hell ;  all  is  under  the  despotism  of  the  devil.  God 
comes  to  man  only  as  he  has  stored  up  in  them  his  grace. 
Of  that  grace  they  have  inexhaustible  quantities.  They, 
and  they  only,  are  the  great  head  quarters  of  supply. 

Again  :  as  they  are  infallible,  and  as  God  has  subjected 
all  men  to  them  and  put  all  grace  into  their  hands,  all 
men  are  bound  to  be  their  subjects  and  also  their  cus- 
tomers. To  believe  any  others,  or  obey  any  others,  or 
buy  the  grace  of  God  of  any  others,  is  treason. 

Again  :  as  they  are  infallible,  so  they  aim,  as  far  as 
possible,  to  be  omniscient  and  omnipresent.  This  they 
effect  by  their  agents  who  hear  confessions.  To  them 
every  act,  motive,  feeling,  thought,  and  plan  must  be  dis- 
closed, or  no  pardon  of  sins  can  be  obtained  ;  for  they 

(138) 


OPERATION   AXD    EFFECTS    OF   THE   SYSTEM.  139 

cannot  judge  of  sins  unless  they  know  all  the  circum- 
stances of  alleviation  or  aggravation. 

Again  :  not  only  are  the  corporation  to  be  regarded  as 
infallible,  but  also  their  agents  to  whom  confession  is 
made  are  to  be  treated  as  infallible ;  for,  practically,  the 
people  are  not  allowed  to  know  what  the  corporation  or 
God  teaches  or  demands  by  private  judgment,  but  solely 
through  the  priests.  It  comes  to  this,  then,  in  practice, 
that  to  each  one  his  or  her  priest  is  as  God,  and  hears 
confessions  and  absolves  as  God  ;  and  so  their  councils  and 
doctors  teach.  Each  priest,  then,  is  virtually  an  exten- 
sion of  the  great  divine,  infallible,  central  corporation. 
Thus  the  great  central  corporation  branches  out  into 
agencies  and  sub-agencies  all  over  the  world,  through 
which  it  teaches,  governs,  and  trades. 

It  thus  comes-  to  pass  that  though  theoretically  the 
priest  is  not  infallible,  but  only  the  great  corporation,  so 
that  they  are  not  responsible  for  his  statements,  yet  in 
practice  it  is  the  priest  who  alone  knows  what  the  church, 
who  is  infallible  and  as  God,  teaches,  and  he  therefore  is 
practically  infallible  and  as  God  ;  and  it  is  practical  here- 
sy or  treason,  as  a  general  fact,  not  so  to  regard  him. 


GRAND  PECULIARITY. 

"We  now  come  to  a  grand  peculiarity  of  the  system, 
upon  which  its  working  power  entirely  depends.  To  the 
masses  it  materializes  and  perverts  all  ideas  of  heaven 
and  hell ;  it  gives  false  and  fanatical  conceptions  of  God 
as  regarding  this  corporation  more  than  real  and  genuine 
holiness  ;  it  fills  the  mind  with  superstitious  fears,  and 
then  concentrates  all  these  forces,  from  the  first  dawn  of 


140         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

reason,  to  break  down  all  energy  or  courage  to  think  or 
to  reason  from  the  Bible  or  from  any  other  source  against 
their  authority  or  decisions.  Even  to  doubt  is  heresy  ;  it 
is  infidelity.  It  thus  aims  by  the  whole  power  of  educa- 
tion thoroughly  to  cut  the  sinews  of  reason  and  of  reason- 
ing, and  to  establish  a  habit-of  blind  and  implicit  belief. 
In  this  they  have  most  incredible  success. 

Few  have  ever  adequately  considered  the  wide  range 
of  this  operation.  We  know  God  as  he  is  by  love.  Ev- 
ery one  that  loveth  is  born  of  God  and  knoweth  God. 
The  elements  of  heaven  are  found  in  the  perfection  of 
love  and  of  communion  with  God. 

But  the  miseries  of  hell  are  but  the  opposite  of  the  joys 
of  heaven  ;  they  are  the  full  development  of  malignant 
passions  and  a  sense  of  the  just  displeasure  of  God. 
There  is  no  need  of  literal  penal  fires  ;  nor  does  the  Bible 
teach  their  existence. 

But  the  moment  that  God  is  conceived  of  as  the  partial 
God  of  a  corporation  for  the  most  part  grossly  immoral, 
and  holy  men  out  of  that  church  are  consigned  to  literal 
fire,  no  true  ideas  of  God,  heaven,  or  hell  remain.  He  is 
conceived  of  as  an  infinite,  almighty,  malignant  demon. 
Malignity  and  revenge  are  sanctified  as  zeal  for  him.  Ar- 
bitrary and  fanatical  terrors  are  multiplied.  They  pen- 
etrate the  youthful  mind  and  freeze  it  with  horror  at  the 
thought  of  doubting  the  word  of  a  corporation  outside 
of  which  he  has  consigned  all  to  perdition.  From  the 
effects  of  such  training  few  ever  recover. 

Such  is  the  corporation  and  such  its  mode  of  opera- 
tion. 

Let  us  next  consider  its  tendencies  and  effects. 

As  Protestants,  we  are  of  course  regarded  as  heretics. 
Let  us,  then,  first  consider  its  aspects  towards  us. 


OPEBATION   AND   EFFECTS  OF  THE   SYSTEM.  141 


TREATMENT  OF  HERETICS. 

First,  then,  it  tends  to  make  heresy  the  greatest  of  all 
crimes,  and  especially  the  heresy  of  doubting  or  denying 
the  divine  authority  and  the  infallibility  of  the  corpora- 
tion. 

The  reason  of  this  is  plain.  In  the  belief  of  this  divine 
authority  and  infallibility  lies  the  whole  working  power 
of  the  system  in  all  its  aspects  —  religious,  pecuniary,  and 
political.  It  is  the  essential,  all-pervading  element  of  its 
vitality.  Therefore  it  is  only  the  natural  instinct  of  self- 
defence  to  consider  the  act  of  calling  in  question  its  di- 
vine authority  or  infallibility  the  greatest  of  crimes.  To 
believe  and  act  against  its  authority,  its  decisions,  and  its 
will,  is  the  great,  the  only,  unpardonable  sin.  It  is  called 
HERESY  in  the  phraseology  of  theologians.  Its  real  and 
more  intelligible  name  is,  or  ought  to  be,  TREASON  ;  for  this 
is  what  they  mean  by  it.  It  is  resistance  to  their  author- 
ity, their  power,  their  will,  their  law.  Even  if  you  are 
not  actually  promulgating  error,  yet,  if  you  claim  the 
right  to  judge  of  them  or  of  their  decisions  by  the  Bible 
or  by  reason,  you  are  guilty  of  the  very  essence  of  trea- 
son. It  was  for  this,  and  this  alone,  that  they  burned 
John  Huss. 

Again :  on  their  premises,  the  destruction  of  heretics  is 
the  natural  and  consistent  development  of  the  system. 
For  those  who  are  not  infallible  to  destroy  dissentients  is 
illogical  and  inconsistent.  But  if  such  a  corporation  is  a 
true  and  genuine  theocracy,  and  knows  it,  and  is  infallible 
in  all  its  decisions,  —  if  they  are,  in  fact,  God  upon  earth, 
—  then  they  regard  themselves  as  standing  on  genuine  Old 
Testament  ground,  and,  in  slaughtering  heretics,  as  simply 
imitating  Elijah  in  his  slaughter  of  the  priests  of  Baal, 


142         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

or  Joshua  in  his  slaughter  of  the  idolatrous  Canaanites  at 
the  command  of  God. 

So,  indeed,  those  who  have  been  brought  up  thoroughly 
to  believe  the  system  have  always  looked  at  the  matter. 
Believing  this  corporation  to  be  a  true  theocracy,  involv- 
ing all  the  interests  of  Grod  and  of  man  on  earth,  rebel- 
lion against  it  and  efforts  to  destroy  its  authority  they 
have  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  crimes.  Hence  we  can 
understand  why,  though  the  Spaniards  pity  other  criminals 
when  executed,  they  exult  and  manifest  peculiar  joy  at  the 
burning  of  heretics ;  which  is  well  known  to  be  the  fact. 
Hence,  also,  the  religious  services  on  the  occasion  of  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew  were  no  more  than  the 
logical  results  of  the  system. 

Beyond  all  doubt  this  is  the  only  real  logical,  consistent 
Roman  Catholic  view.  On  no  other  ground  can  the  deeds 
of  that  system  be  defended  ;  and  there  is  now;  as  we  have 
seen,  a  general  tendency  to  take  this  ground  and  avow  its 
consequences,  and  to  declare  that  as  soon  as  they  gain  the 
power  they  shall  carry  out  these  principles  again. 

On  this  ground  Mr.  Brownson  denies  that  the  Romish 
church  ever  has  persecuted  :  she  has  but  exercised  just 
authority  in  punishing  those  who  were  guilty  of  treason. 


TREATMENT  OF  THE  BIBLE  AND  OF  HISTORY. 

But  again  :  it  follows  that  if  in  fact  this  corporation  has 
no  basis  in  the  Bible,  nor  in  history,  but  is  founded  on  im- 
posture and  forgery,  it  of  course  must  create  in  the  man- 
agers of  the  corporation  a  peculiar  and  an  intense  hatred 
of  the  Bible  and  of  history.  Viewed  either  as  a  religion, 
a  trading  corporation,  or  a  government,  it  would  exert 
immense  power  to  avert  the  disclosures  of  God's  word 


OPERATION  AND  EFFECTS  OF  THE  SYSTEM.     143 

and  of  the  great  volume  of  history.  How  much  more 
when  the  interests  of  three  such  systems  combined  in  one 
are  in  peril! 

It  is  natural  that  the  inhabitants  of  an  immense  palace 
should  regard  with  horror  and  indignation  all  efforts  to 
cast  fire  into  it  and  consume  it.  Yet  the  Bible  and  his- 
tory are  merely  the  fire  of  God.  Let  them  be  fully  de- 
veloped, and  this  whole  fabric  is  consumed.  Of  course 
the  most  intense  energies  of  this  whole  mighty  corpora- 
tion will  be  put  forth  to  avert  these  results. 

The  doctrine  of  pious  frauds,  at  its  first  development, 
was  feeble  and  its  aspect  plausible  ;  but  out  of  it  grew 
the  whole  Papal  system.  And  now,  at  last,  all  kinds  of 
fraud,  pious  and  impious,  are  needed  in  its  defence,  and 
must  be  and  will  be  employed  with  the  most  intense  en- 
ergy. "We  need  not  wonder  that  the  system  sanctions 
them.  It  could  not  exist  a  day  without  them. 


EFFECTS  ON  LIBERTY. 

Once  more  :  this  system  is,  of  necessity,  one  immense 
conspiracy,  designed  to  destroy  the  very  roots  of  all  intel- 
lectual, civil,  and  religious  liberty.  This  is  essential  in 
order  to  sustain  it.  This  is  involved  in  the  decision  of 
the  church,  "  that  he  who  only  doubts  concerning  the  faith, 
is  to  be  reputed  an  infidel."  This  maxim,  applied  from 
the  first  development  of  the  intellectual  powers  of  a  child, 
and  by  every  process  of  parental,  priestly,  and  ecclesias- 
tical influence,  and  by  every  terror  that  superstition  can 
summon  up,  paralyzes  and  cripples  the  minds  of  thorough- 
ly educated  Romanists  to  an  extent  of  which  it  is  hard  to 
conceive.  This  principle  pervades  the  system  with  intense 


144         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

power,  and  especially  all  Romish  educational  processes. 
A  habit  of  free  and  independent  thought  is  fatal  to  their 
church.  Hence  the  hatred  of  the  ecclesiastics  of  Rome 
against  our  system  of  free  schools,  our  histories,  and  our 
Bibles.  If  she  would  maintain  herself  she  must  have  a 
system  of  education  entirely  under  her  control,  so  that  she 
may  still,  as  heretofore,  cripple  and  paralyze  the  mind 
from  its  first  to  its  last  educational  processes.  This  is 
what  she  means  to  have. 

How  can  a  community  thus  educated  be  free?  Can 
any  outward  forms  of  government  give  freedom  to  a  na- 
tion the  minds  of  whose  children  are  thus  paralyzed  and 
crippled  from  the  dawn  of  life  ?  This  effect  of  Romanism 
was  seen  and  lamented  in  France  at  the  time  of  the  last 
revolution.  One  of  her  leading  statesmen  declared  that 
she  could  not  follow  the  example  of  America  in  sustain- 
ing popular  institutions,  and  assigned  the  influence  of 
Papal  education  as  the  reason. 

On  this  ground  Pierce  Connelly,  once  a  Romish  priest, 
eloquently  says,  in  his  letter  to  Lord  Shrewsbury  assign- 
ing his  reasons  for  abjuring  allegiance  to  the  see  of 
Rome,  — 

"  It  is  not  civil  liberty  that  is  the  first  want  of  the  con- 
tinent of  Europe  or  of  the  Spanish  republics  of  America. 
The  want  is,  the  education  necessary  for  men  to  be  free, 
the  perception  of  what  'is  liberty  ;  the  want  is,  EMANCI- 
PATION FROM  A  PSEUDO-DIVINE  JURISDICTION  UPON  EARTH. 
This  is  the  want  that  makes  the  darkness  of  their  future, 
as  of  their  present  and  their  past.  Rome  weighs  upon 
her  victims  like  an  eternal  nightmare.  Who  was  more 
impatient  of  the  oppression  than  Venice  ?  But  was  her 
proudest  patrician  ever  free  ?  Nay,  is  Prussia,  reduced  to 
a  semi-Papal  province  by  concordat,  —  is  Prussia  or  any 
great  kingdom  of  the  continent  free  ?  " 


OPERATION   AND    EFFECTS   OF   THE   SYSTEM.  145 


EFFECTS  OX  NATIONAL  PROSPERITY. 

Once  more :  the  immense  extortions  of  the  system,  as 
well  as  its  system  of  holidays,  absorbing  in  idleness  a 
large  portion  of  the  time  of  the  laboring  classes,  have 
tended  in  all  ages,  and  still  tend,  to  impoverish  the  na- 
tions over  -which  it  holds  sway.  It  is  notorious  that 
kings  and  people  in  the  most  Catholic  ages  have  groaned 
most  bitterly  by  reason  of  its  various  extortions,  and  have 
been  by  them  at  last  aroused  to  resistance.  Such  feelings 
indeed,  in  part,  caused  the  reformation.  Hence  the  mis 
erable  condition  of  Italy,  and  especially  of  the  population 
of  the  Papal  States. 

In  our  own  country,  one  of  the  priests  has  bitterly  cursed 
savings  banks.  The  reason  is  plain.  The  church  prefers 
to  extort  the  savings  of  the  poor  laborers  of  this  country 
for  her  own  purposes  rather  than  to  have  them  deposited 
for  their  earners  in  savings  banks.  So,  also,  she  is  deter- 
mined to  own  all  their  church  property.  Moreover,  be- 
cause  the  system  is  hostile  to  all  kinds  of  mental  liberty, 
it  is  of  necessity  hostile  to  all  inventive  power,  and  to  all 
free  development  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  of  society, 
and  to  "all  social  progress.  This  is  self-evident ;  for  all 
truth  belongs  to  one  great  system  ;  and  true  freedom  to  in- 
vestigate one  part  leads  to  true  freedom  to  investigate 
another.  The  only  safe  course  is  to  arrest  the  process, 
as  when  the  Inquisition  compelled  Galileo  to  recant  the 
true  theory  of  the  motion  of  the  earth. 

Under  such  influences  true  social  progress  is  impossible. 
There  will  be  no  development  of  thrift,  industry,  energy, 
enterprise,  invention,  even  as  we  see  to  be  the  case  in  all 
parts  of  Roman  Catholic  Ireland. 

The  historian  Macaulay  is  disposed,  even  to  an  excess, 
13 


146         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

to  give  all  the  credit  that  he  can  to  Rome  before  the  ref- 
ormation. His  judgment,  therefore,  is  the  more  impartial 
as  to  what  she  is  now.  Speaking  of  the  time  since  the  ref- 
ormation, he  says,  — 

"  To  stunt  the  growth  of  the  human  mind  has  been  her 
chief  object.  Throughout  Christendom,  whatever  advance 
has  been  made  in  knowledge,  in  freedom,  in  wealth,  and  in 
the  arts  of  life,  has  been  made  in  spite  of  her,  and  has  every 
where  been  in  inverse  proportion  to  her  power.  The  love- 
liest and  most  fertile  provinces  of  Europe  have,  under  her 
rule,  been  sunk  in  poverty,  in  political  servitude,  and  in 
intellectual  torpor  ;  while  Protestant  countries,  once  pro- 
verbial for  sterility  and  barbarism,  have  been  turned,  by 
skill  and  industry,  in^o  gardens,  and  can  boast  of  a  long 
list  of  heroes  and  statesmen,  philosophers  and  poets. 
Whoever,  knowing  what  Italy  and  Scotland  naturally  are, 
and  what,  four  hundred  years  ago,  they  actually  were, 
shall  now  compare  the  country  round  Rome  with  the  coun- 
try round  Edinburgh,  will  be  able  to  form  some  judgment 
as  to  the  tendency  of  Papal  domination.  The  descent  of 
Spain,  once  the  first  among  monarchies,  to  the  lowest 
depths  of  degradation,  the  elevation  of  Holland,  in  spite 
of  many  natural  disadvantages,  to  a  position' such  as  no 
commonwealth  so  small  has  ever  reached,  teach  the  same 
lesson.  Whoever  passes,  in  Germany,  from  a  Roman 
Catholic  to  a  Protestant  principality,  in  Switzerland  from 
a  Roman  Catholic  to  a  Protestant  canton,  in  Ireland  from 
a  Roman  Catholic  to  a  Protestant  county,  finds  that  he  has 
passed  from  a  lower  to  a  higher  grade  of  civilization.  On 
the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic  the  same  law  prevails.  The 
Protestants  of  the  United  States  have  left  far  behind  them 
the  Roman  Catholics  of  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Brazil.  The 
Roman  Catholics  of  Lower  Canada  remain  inert ;  while 
the  whole  continent  round  them  is  in  a  ferment  with  Prot- 
estant activity  and  enterprise." 


OPEKATION  AND  EFFECTS  OF  THE  SYSTEM.  147 


ROME  THE  EXEMY  OF  MAN. 

From  this  general  survey  it  is  obvious  that  the  Romish 
church  is  the  enemy  of  man  in  all  aspects  —  religious,  po- 
litical, and  social.  Nor  would  it  seem  possible  to  add 
any  thing  to  the  magnitude  and  enormity  of  her  guilt. 
And  yet,  thus  far,  we  have  hardly  begun  to  penetrate  the 
depths  of  her  malignant  influence.  It  is  not  until  we  have 
understood  the  moral  influence  of  her  system  upon  her 
priesthood,  and  through  them  upon  all  departments  of  re- 
ligion and  of  social  life,  that  we  can  thoroughly  under- 
stand the  blasting  and  desolating  power  of  Romanism.  • 

I  refer  in  particular  to  the  influence  of  the  celibacy  of 
the  clergy,  and  of  the  confessional  in  connection  with  it. 
Rome  here  has  one  advantage  over  Protestants.  The 
facts  of  her  history  in  these  respects  are  so  outrageous 
that  they  cannot,  with  any  regard  to  decency,  be  fully 
stated.  Moreover  they  are  so  atrocious  that,  until  we 
see  the  law  and  the  philosophy  of  their  origin,  they  seem 
incredible.  In  addition,  it  is  painful  to  contemplate  such 
disgusting  enormities  and  crimes. 

I  shall  not  try  to  deprive  Romanism  of  her  advantages 
of  this  sort.  I  shall  not  pollute  the  public  mind  by  a  full 
disclosure  of  the  truth  with  respect  to  her  abominations. 
These  are  the  things  of  which  an  apostle  says  it  is  a  shame 
even  to  speak. 

Nevertheless,  fidelity  to  God,  and  to  our  country,  and 
to  humanity  forbids  that  this  topic  be  passed  over.  It  is 
proper,  at  least,  to  state  general  principles  and  some 
leading  facts. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

THE  CELIBACY  OF  THE   CLERGY.   > 

IT  is  plain  that  to  administer  a  system  like  Romanism 
requires  a  very  peculiar  class  of  men,  and  an  intense 
power  of  combination,  and  concentration,  and  military 
discipline. 

Men  are  needed  bound  to  the  pope  more  powerfully 
than  to  any  local  community ;  men  who  will  not  shrink 
from  any  needed  hypocrisy,  falsehood,  deception,  or  per- 
fidy ;  men  who  will  be  hardened  and  fanatical  enough  to 
preside  over  and  conduct  the  extremest  kinds  of  torture 
with  a  firmness  of  nerve  which  no  pity  can  affect,  and  no 
weakness  turn  back  from  the  infliction  of  torment  upon 
torment. 

In  short,  men  are  needed  habituated  to  speak  lies,  in  hy- 
pocrisy, and  having  consciences  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron 
—  men  who  are  able,  with  brazen  face,  to  claim  all  manner 
of  sanctity  whilst  performing  all  kinds  of  diabolical  deeds. 
Men  are  needed,  fanatical,  degraded,  cruel,  immitigable, 
and  unprincipled,  to  carry  out  such  a  system. 

To  produce  concentration,  celibacy  is  used.  It  cuts  off 
the  clergy  from  all  ties  of  family  or  home,  and  leaves  them 
to  the  full  power  of  the  great  centre  at  Rome. 

To  fix  the  despotism  on  the  people,  the  confessional  is 
used  ;  and  by  both  of  these  together  the  priest  is  de- 
graded, polluted,  and  defiled,  and  at  the  same  time  ren- 

(148) 


THE  CELIBACY  OF  THE  CLERGY.         149 

dered  a  hardened  and  cruel  hypocrite  and  villain,  fit  for 
any  deed  of  infamy  which  the  system  demands.  I  do  not 
mean  to  include  every  priest  in  this  statement,  but  only  to 
develop  the  general  law  and  tendency  of  the  system. 

If  we  would  thoroughly  understand  the  full  malignity, 
the  diabolical  power,  and  intensity  of  the  all-pervading 
poison  of  Romanism,  let  the  full  import  of  this  statement 
be  thoroughly  understood.  It  is  needless  to  make  any 
remarks  on  the  importance  of  the  clerical  body  under  any 
form  of  Christianity.  They  are  the  administrators  of  the 
whole  system ;  they  are  diffused  throughout  the  commu- 
nity ;  they  act  upon  every  interest  of  life.  The  family, 
the  school,  the  church  are  constantly  under  their  influence. 
In  the  sacred  solemnities  of  marriage  they  officiate  ;  in  the 
joys  of  parents  over  a  newborn  child  they  sympathize  ;  in 
the  hour  of  sickness,  by  the  bed  of  death,  they  are  present 
to  administer  spiritual  instruction ;  and  in  the  hour  of  af- 
fliction and  bereavement  it  is  theirs  to  offer  the  consola- 
tions of  the  gospel.  As  the  blood  circulates  through  the 
whole  body,  so  does  their  influence  penetrate  and  pervade 
every  part  of  the  body  politic. 

What,  then,  can  be  more  evident  than  that  whatever 
corrupts  and  degrades  the  clergy  extends  its  malign  in- 
fluence throughout  the  whole  community  ?  Whatever  sanc- 
tifies and  elevates  them,  will  diffuse  with  equal  power 
blessings  of  every  kind. 

It  is,  then,  enough  to  condemn  Romanism  to  utter  det- 
estation, as  the  enemy  of  both  God  and  man,  that  it  is  a 
system  framed  with  satanic  skill  and  power  to  corrupt  and 
to  debase  the  clergy,  and  render  them  ineffably  vile,  and 
hardened,  and  malignant. 

If  to  any  this  language  shall  seem  unwarrantably  strong, 
let  such  consider  the  two  following  facts  :  — 

By  usurped  authority,  it  undertakes  to  suspend,  in  all  its 
13* 


150         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

clergy,  the  action  of  a  great  law  of  nature,  ordained  by 
God  for  the  welfare  of  man  —  a  law,  too,  which,  from  the 
very  nature  of  the  case,  acts  with  greater  and  more  con- 
stant power  than  any  other  that  can  be  named.  Love  is 
strong  as  death  —  mightier  than  the  grave.  The  coals 
thereof  are  coals  of  fire,  that  hath  a  most  vehement  flame. 
Many  waters  cannot  quench  love  ;  neither  can  the  floods 
drown  it.  If  a  man  would  give  all  the  substance  of  his 
house  for  love,  it  would  be  utterly  contemned. 

It  is  not  without  reason  that  God  made  man  capable  of 
this  powerful  affection.  The  family  is  a  little  model  of 
the  universal  system  under  God  and  the  church ;  and  the 
love  on  which  it  is  based  is  an  emblem  of  the  highest  love 
of  the  universe  —  even  that  which  exists  between  God 
and  the  redeemed. 

Though  God  has  thus  associated  this  love  with  all  that 
is  holy  ;  though  he  has  pronounced  marriage  honorable  in 
all,  and  the  bed  undefiled  ;  though  he  has  clearly  intimated 
his  will  that  the  clergy  should  have  wives  and  rule  their 
families  well,  —  yet  the  corporation  of  Rome  dares  to  stig- 
matize as  unholy  what  God  has  thus  honored,  and  has 
prohibited  marriage  to  all  her  clergy,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  on  the  ground  that  thus  they  can  attain  a 
higher  degree  of  sanctity.  This  is  the  first  great  fact  to 
be  considered. 

THE  CONFESSIONAL. 

The  second  great  fact  is  this — that  these  unhappy  men, 
thus  condemned  through  life  to  contend  with  those  pow- 
erful impulses  which  God  has  implanted  in  their  breasts, 
are  not  allowed  to  retire  from  temptation  and  call  off 
their  minds  from  forbidden  thoughts,  but  are  deliberately, 
remorselessly,  and  constantly  thrust  into  the  very  centre 


THE  CELIBACY  OP  THE  CLERGY.         151 

of  the  fiery  furnace  of  temptation.  This  is  done  by  requir- 
ing them  to  "hear  the  confessions  of  all  their  flock,  in  which, 
of  course,  are  included  those  of  females  of  all  ages,  and  on 
all  the  points  that  are  involved  in  a  thorough  confession. 
Any  one  who  knows  what  this  implies  will  not  need  to 
hear  any  thing  more.  On  topics  upon  which  in  common 
life  no  refined  person  pretends  to  speak,  they  are  required 
by  their  theological  teachers  and  text  books  to  make  the 
most  minute  examinations  as  to  the  thoughts,  imagina- 
tions, desires,  and  acts  of  every  female  who  comes  to  the 
confessional.  Not  one  Protestant  in  a  thousand  has  any 
idea  what  questions  are  proposed  in  the  schedules  of  ex- 
amination set  forth  in  their  most  authoritative  text  books. 
Decency  forbids  their  utterance. 

Now,  with  regard  to  this  arrangement,  it  may  be  truly 
said  that  satanic  ingenuity  could  not  devise  a  system 
better  adapted  to  corrupt  and  debase  the  clerical  body  as 
a  mass.  It  is  no  more  certain  that  water  will  run  down 
hill  than  it  is  that  they  will  not  resist  the  temptations  to 
which  they  are  exposed.  They  will  be  corrupted  and 
will  become  corrupters. 

And  yet  they  are  bound  to  profess  and  to  claim  for 
themselves  and  for  their  church  great  and  exclusive  holi- 
ness. The  Protestant  clergy,  who  are  blessed  of  God  in 
lawful  marriage,  they  are  bound  to  denounce  as  unclean. 
At  the  same  time  they  are  distinctly  conscious  that  the 
only  difference  in  the  case  is,  that  against  solemn  vows, 
and  without  the  blessing  of  God,  and  as  seducers  and  cor- 
rupters, they  seek  for  and  obtain  that  which  the  others 
enjoy  according  to  the  divine  and  hallowed  ordinance  of 
God. 

Licentiousness  always  hardens  and  degrades  the  charac- 
ter in  any  circumstances  ;  but  in  circumstances  like  these, 
how  unspeakably  much  more !  He  who  can  carry  on  the 


152        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

lying  involved  in  such  a  course  is  trained  for  any  and 
all  other  lying.  He  who  is  debased  and  hardened  by 
such  a  process  is  fitted  for  any  and  all  other  atrocious 
deeds.  That  such  is  the  result  of  the  system,  there  is, 
alas !  evidence  beyond  the  power  of  full  utterance.  Some 
of  it,  however,  shall  be  presented. 


VAST  SOCIAL  EVILS. 

But,  before  presenting  this  evidence,  we  need  to  take 
another  view  of  the  case  in  order  to  understand  the  full 
extent  of  the  evil.  We  need  to  remember  that  the  celi- 
bacy of  the  clergy  is  founded  on  the  heathenish  notion 
which  early  corrupted  the  Christian  church  —  that  the 
material  system  which  God  has  created  in  so  much  wis- 
dom and  benevolence  is  malignant  in  its  tendencies,  and 
is  the  chief,  if  not  the  only,  cause  of  sin.  Of  course,  to 
be  connected  with  a  material  body  is,  on  these  principles, 
a  great  calamity  and  the  chief  source  of  depravity  ;  and 
the  great  idea  in  the  cultivation  of  holiness  is  to  mortify 
the  body  and  refuse  to  indulge  its  appetites. 

In  particular,  even  the  well-regulated  gratification  of 
that  most  honorable  and  powerful  affection  upon  which 
God  designed  the  marriage  union  and  the  family  state  to 
rest  is  dishonored  and  degraded,  as  utterly  inconsistent 
with  the  highest  attainments  in  holiness.  Whoever  would 
become  eminently  holy,  whether  man  or  woman,  must  first 
of  all  abjure  marriage  and  take  the  vow  of  perpetual 
celibacy  and  chastity. 

Thus,  at  the  very  outset,  an  all-pervading  injury  is  in- 
flicted on  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  who  must  and  will 
live  in  the  married  state,  by  consigning  them  to  a  state 
of  necessary  uncleanness  and  relative  moral  degradation. 


THE  CELIBACY  OP  THE  CLERGY.         153 

None  of  them  can  ever  become  eminently  holy.  That 
blessed  eminence  is  reserved  for  unmarried  priests  and 
nuns. 

No  greater  calamity  can  befall  a  community  than 
to  have  their  fundamental  ideas  of  true  religion  thus 
darkened  and  confused.  It  lays  the  foundation  for  their 
utter  delusion  in  their  religious  experience  as  a  whole,  for 
a  low  standard  of  morals,  and  for  their  subjugation  to  a 
system  which  excludes  the  intelligent  action  of  the  mind 
in  view  of  truth,  and  substitutes  for  it  confession  to  a  priest, 
and  penances,  and  fasts,  and  sacraments,  whose  efficacy  de- 
pends solely  upon  the  priesthood.  As  thus  all  just  ideas 
of  religion  as  a  rational  and  sanctified  state  of  the  affec- 
tions and  will,  acting  itself  out  in  a  holy  life,  are  exploded, 
we  need  not  wonder  that  in  place  of  it  comes  a  religion 
of  heartless  works,  and  forms,  and  shows,  and  imaginative 
excitements. 

Holiness  no  longer  comes  through  a  knowledge  of  God 
and  his  law,  producing  a  true  sense  of  sin  and  leading  to 
repentance  and  faith  in  Christ ;  it  comes  through  a  cer- 
tain mysterious  grace,  through  baptism,  the  Lord's  supper, 
and  other  sacraments,  of  which  the  clergy  have  the  entire 
monopoly ;  and,  as  there  is  no  discriminating  standard 
of  holiness,  all  kinds  of  sympathetic  and  imaginative  ex- 
citements are  mistaken  for  it.  The  natural  affections,  the 
excitement  of  music,  and  pictures,  and  images,  —  all  is 
religion. 

Thus  the  false  principles  from  which  the  celibacy  of  the 
clergy  originates,  like  a  malignant  poison,  pervade  the 
whole  system,  and  blast  and  destroy  true  religion  at  its 
very  roots,  and  introduce  in  its  place  a  system  of  blind 
delusion  and  of  bondage. 

Meantime  the  end  at  which  the  system  professes  to  aim, 
—  the  actual  chastity  of  the  clergy,  —  in  the  great  ma- 
jority of  cases  is  not  gained. 


154        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

It  is  folly  to  suppose  that  God  will  interpose  by  special 
grace  to  prevent  a  system  based  on  a  fundamental  vio- 
lation of  his  great  laws  from  working  out  its  natural 
results.  In  fact  he  has  not  interposed  ;  and  history  testi- 
fies in  all  ages,  and  by  an  inconceivable  amount  of  evi- 
dence, that  it  has  wrought  out  its  legitimate  results, 
especially  in  the  deep  corruption  and  fatal  degradation  of 
the  clergy,  and,  through  them,  of  the  community. 

Well  has  the  word  of  God  stigmatized  this  whole  theory 
as  a  "  doctrine  of  devils,"  introduced  by  the  great  apos- 
tasy. Like  an  all-pervading  pestilence,  it  smites  with 
fatal  malignity  all  the  dearest  interests  of  society  ;  for 
it  not  only  thus  debases  the  clergy,  but  also  consigns  to 
necessary  degradation  and  bondage  all  the  masses  of 
society,  confusing  and  confounding  all  ideas  of  the  very 
nature  of  holiness  itself. 

Overlooking  the  fundamental  work  of  eradicating  the 
great  roots  of  sin,  —  selfishness,  pride,  envy,  and  ambition, 
—  and  thus  leaving  the  most  malignant  passions  to  reign  in 
the  heart,  it  makes  holiness  in  its  highest  forms  to  consist 
in  a  vain  and  fruitless  conflict  with  those  appetites  which 
God  has  implanted  in  man's  nature,  which  can  never  be 
overcome  or  exterminated,  and  the  gratification  of  which 
within  well-defined  limits  is  always  innocent. 


CHAPTER    V. 


REASONS  FOE,  A  THOROUGH  CONSIDERATION  OF  THIS 
PART  OF  THE  SUBJECT. 


THERE  are  three  reasons  why  this  part  of  the  system 
should  be  wisely  and  thoroughly  considered.  First :  be- 
cause the  Romish  corporation,  claiming  to  be  the  only  holy 
and  divinely  authorized  church,  propose  to  extend  it 
throughout  this  land  and  once  more  to  subject  the  people 
to  it  as  of  old.  Again  :  because  it  is  essential  to  the  per- 
manence and  power  of  the  Romish  corporation.  And 
again  :  because  on  this  point  Romanism  has  so  fully  de- 
veloped its  tendencies  and  results  in  history  that  there  are 
ample  materials  for  a  full  and  perfect  judgment. 

It  is  plain  that  the  Romanists  contemplate  the  exten- 
sion of  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  and  of  monks,  and  Jes- 
uits, and  nuns,  throughout  this  country,  from  their  avowals 
and  their  proceedings.  They  would  subject  us  to  such  a 
system  as  France,  and  Spain,  and  Italy,  and  Austria  have 
known  and  still  know  by  a  sad  experience.  "We  ought, 
therefore,  to  know  what  that  experience  was  and  is.  We 
ought  also  to  know  what  was  the  state  of  things  in  Europe 
at  large  before  the  reformation,  that  we  may  see  what  the 
system  was  when  not  counteracted  by  Protestantism.  God, 
by  an  experience  of  long  centuries,  has  given  to  us  ample 
stores  of  knowledge  on  the  subject,  of  which  we  ought  to 
avail  ourselves  ;  for  if  there  is  a  subject  on  which  the 

(155) 


156         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

whole  world  ought  to  feel  with  a  holy,  God-inspired,  all- 
pervading,  fiery  energy,  it  is  this.  In  fact  it  is  at  this 
time  calling  up  in  Europe  the  attention  of  even  Romish 
communities  as  well  as  of  Protestants.  On  this  point  the 
Eclectic  Review  says,  — 

"  The  great  movement  at  present  going  on  in  Germany 
is  a  sufficient  awakener.  What  has  stirred  like  a  tempest 
the  whole  ocean  of  Catholic  life  over  almost  every  district 
of  that  great  nation?  The  horrors  resulting  from  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy,  against  which  they  have  long  pe- 
titioned the  pope  in  vain. 

"  The  scandal  to  public  morals  and  to  private  manners 
every  where  occasioned  by  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  and 
the  horrors  resulting  from  that  diabolical  institution,  have 
been  of  such  a  nature  as  completely  to  open  the  eyes  of 
the  most  simple  and  stupid,  and  to  occasion  loud  demands 
for  its  removal.  According  to  German  policy,  every 
means  has  been  used  to  suppress  the  knowledge  of  the  ter- 
rible revelations  which  from  time  to  time  were  taking 
place.  The  press  was  securely  prevented  by  the  censor 
from  ever  alluding  to  them  ;  the  police  hushed  all  possible 
discussion  regarding  them.  Yet,  spite  of  all  this,  such 
bloody  and  tragic  facts  have  oozed  through  the  thick  walls 
of  nunneries,  and  cast  a  horrible  shade  on  the  still  roofs 
of  village  parsonages,  as  have  thrilled  Avith  indignant 
terror  the  heart  of  every  hearer.  In  many  parsonages 
the  people  have  preferred  to  see  a  family  of  children 
growing  up,  of  whose  parentage  no  question  could  be 
asked,  to  risking,  even  by  a  single  remark,  the  increase 
of  that  feeling  by  which  infanticide  was  made  certain  and 
fearfully  frequent.  In  many  states  those  religious  pilgrim- 
ages to  the  shrines  of  certain  popular  saints,  which  still 
in  Austria  and  Bavaria  are  very  numerous, — in  which 
often  as  many  as  ten  thousand  people  will  be  engaged, 
making  long  journeys  through  solitary  forests  and  over  the 
mountains,  encamping  in  obscure  places  far  from  towns  by 
night,  and  perhaps  for  days,  at  the  end  of  their  journey, 
around  the  shrine,  in  some  as  lonely  a  spot,  —  have  been 
obliged  to  be  forbidden  by  government,  from  the  license 


REASONS  FOR   CONSIDERING  THIS  SUBJECT.  157 

and  the  crimes  to  which  they  gave  origin,  and  in  which 
the  clergy  often  figured  most  mischievously  for  the  inter- 
ests of  religion.  In  Austria  the  resort  to  these  shrines  is 
still  enormous.  In  the  month  of  September  alone  the 
visitants  to  that  of  Maria  Taferl,  near  Linz,  often  amount 
to  one  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  ;  and  all  summer  the 
people  are  streamiug  from  Vienna  and  numberless  other 
places  to  that  of  the  Black  Virgin  at  Mariazell,  in  Styria." 

But,  notwithstanding  such  things  and  even  worse  have 
been  known  to  the  Romish  corporation,  they  are  deter- 
mined to  cling  to  the  system  with  a  death  grasp  ;  for  by 
it  the  clergy  are  detached  from  local  attachments  and  cen- 
tralized around  the  Pope  of  Rome.  The  question  of  abol- 
ishing clerical  celibacy  was  called  up  by  the  reformation  ; 
it  was  earnestly  argued  in  the  council  of  Trent.  Leading 
Catholic  sovereigns  urged  the  measure  ;  but  Papal  policy 
resisted  and  prevailed. 

Nevertheless,  such  is  the  history  of  the  past  on  this  sub- 
ject that  injured  and  insulted  humanity  every  where  ought 
to  be  aroused  and  animated  by  God  till  the  whole  system 
shall  be  consumed  with  avenging  fire.     On  this  point  the 
,     same  reviewer  says, — 

"  The  governments  of  the  most  Catholic  states  are  com- 
pelled to  curb  that  license  which  the  court  of  Rome  allows, 
and  to  put  down  those  atrocities  which  have  received  the 
patronage  and  the  blessings  of  the  most  celebrated  pon- 
tiffs. The  very  clergy  themselves  writhe  and  groan  under 
the  bondage  into  which  the  decree  of  Gregory  VII.  has 
thrown  them  — a  decree  which  has  condemned  them  to  a 
living  death,  and  made  them,  where  they  should  be  the 
fountains  of  holiness,  the  most  prolific  fountains  of  crime 
and  scandal.  In  vain  they  have  implored  the  pope  to 
reconsider  and  abolish  this  unnatural  decree  ;  its  abolition 
now  would  bring  down  the  whole  Papal  fabric.  In  the 
Black  Songs  of  Benedict  Dalei,  purporting  to  be  the  po- 
etic autobiography  of  a  Catholic  priest,  the  whole  terrible 
14 


158         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

mystery  of  iniquity,  the  purgatory,  and  lonely  wretched- 
ness of  a  priest's  life  are  depicted  with  a  feeling  that  makes 
you  shrink  with  horror  from  the  contemplation.  It  is  this 
terrible  reality,  acting  alike  on  priests  and  people  in 
Catholic  countries,  making  the  priest's  life  a  true  misery, 
converting  him  into  a  spy  and  a  tool,  compelling  him  who 
has  vowed  before  God  to  proclaim  the  truth  into  a  studied 
and  inevitable  supporter  of  the  most  infamous  frauds,  a 
cor-rupter  of  the  minds  of  the  young,  and  a  tyrant  where 
he  should  be  the  friend,  —  it  is  because  the  confessional  has 
become  the  soul  trap  of  Satan  and  the  well  of  all  spiritual  pol- 
lutions that  the  popular  mind  has  revolted  from  the  system 
throughout  Germany,  and  will  revolt  from  it,  finally,  every 
where.  In  England  we  have  had  these  horrors  removed 
from  our  observation  ;  and  therefore  Catholicism  is  toler- 
able and  even  piquant  to  the  imagination.  Let  M.  Mi- 
chelet  say  what  is  in  France." 

The  concluding  remarks  of  the  Eclectic  reviewer  are  ap- 
plicable to  this  country.  Popery  here  is  not  seen  in  its  true 
character  and  full  development,  and  therefore  to  some  it 
seems  tolerable  ;  and  efforts  have  been  made  to  render  it 
piquant  to  the  imagination.  Bishop  Kenrick  has,  with 
great  audacity,  undertaken  this  work.  He  has  under- 
taken, not  only  to  vindicate  the  system,  but  to  prove  that 
the  influence  of  the  confessional  tends,  "  like  a  river  of 
pure  water  from  the  temple  of  God,  to  wash  away  all  the 
pollutions  of  society." 

It  is  therefore  essential  that  every  true  American  should 
be  well  informed  on  this  great  and  momentous  theme,  af- 
fecting as  it  does  the  morals  and  the  whole  well  being  of 
coming  ages.  In  vain  does  Bishop  Kenrick  say  that  the 
system  works  well  hei'e.  A  young  tiger  may  seem,  when 
in  his  infancy,  as  harmless  as  a  kitten  ;  but  it  is  a  tiger 
still.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  purity  of  the  system  here. 
But  if  it  were  so,  what  then?  What  if,  when  not  full 
grown  and  surrounded  by  Protestant  vigilance,  it  should 


REASONS   FOR   CONSIDERING  THIS   SUBJECT.  159 

not  reveal  itself  as  it  always  has  in  Romanized  countries? 
Still,  if  ever  it  should  gain  the  ascendency  in  this  com- 
munity, its  effects  will  surely  be  the  same  that  they  always 
have  been. 

Before  God  and  this  nation,  then,  let  this  system  be  ar- 
raigned, charged,  and  tried  as  the  great  corrupter  of  the 
clergy,  and,  through  them,  of  mankind.  The  bishops  who 
defend  it,  if  ignorant,  ought  to  be  confronted  with  its  past 
history.  If  not  ignorant,  as  is  probably  the  case  with  all 
of  them,  then  their  criminal  attempts  to  delude  the  Amer- 
ican people  ought  to  be  exposed. 

It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  importance  of  this 
part  of  the  subject.  It  has  been  well  said  by  an  intelli- 
gent French  writer,  once  a  Romanist,  "  The  strength  and 
vigor  of  Roman  Catholics  depend  upon  their  priests  ; 
through  them  is  their  only  means  of  annoyance ;  they  are  the 
true  column  of  the  Papacy."  On  no  subject  did  Lafayette 
feel  more  deeply.  Let  us  heed  his  warning  voice.  He 
said,  "  AMERICAN  LIBERTY  CAN  BE  DESTROYED  ONLY  BY  THE 
POPISH  CLERGY." 

But  let  us  be  just.  Young  men  are  not  corrupt,  as  a 
general  fact,  when  they  enter  the  Popish  seminaries  to 
prepare  to  become  priests.  It  is  the  system  of  celibacy, 
and  the  confessional,  and  the  company  of  priests  already 
corrupted  that  corrupt  them  in  successive  generations  in 
actual  life.  Those  who  are  thus  seduced  and  corrupted 
by  an  abominable  system  deserve  our  pity,  although  they 
do  finally  become  hardened  and  reprobate. 

But  what  shall  be  said  of  that  great  central  corpora- 
tion which,  well  knowing  from  age  to  age  that  this  system 
was  inundating  the  world  with  pollution,  has,  from  mo- 
tives of  power  and  profit,  under  hypocritical  pretences 
of  holiness,  and  against  all  protestations  and  remon- 
strances, upheld  the  system  ?  Ought  they  not  to  meet,  in  its 


160         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

highest  forms,  the  unmingled  execration  of  mankind,  and 
to  encounter  the  fiery  judgment  of  God  ? 

I  am  well  aware  that  this  language  is  strong  and  these 
charges  severe ;  yet  they  are  not  the  result  of  passionate 
excitement,  but  of  deep  conviction  before  God.  I  am 
willing  to  be  held  responsible  for  them.  If  I  do  not  prove 
them,  let  me  be  dealt  with  as  a  slanderer.  But  if  they 
are  true,  then,  if  any  thing  ought  to  move  heaven  and 
earth,  yea,  God  and  the  whole  universe,  to  retributive  ven- 
geance, it  is  such  facts  as  these. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   VOICE  OF  HISTORY  AND  EXPERIENCE. 

IT  is  fit  that  evidence  should  be  adduced  to  sustain  the 
correctness  of  the  views  which  have  been  presented  of  the 
corrupting  influence  of  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  and  the 
confessional. 

The  most  common  and  popular  evidence  is  found  in  those 
severe  allegations  which  converted  Romish  priests  have 
made  against  the  morals  of  the  Romish  clergy,  and  which  are 
in  full  accordance  with  the  views  which  have  been  given. 
But  the  Romanists  repudiate  the  statements  of  such,  as  the 
foul  slander  of  apostate  priests.  Thus  they  try  to  destroy 
the  force  of  the  testimony  of  Anthony  Gavin,  in  his  Master 
Key  to  Popery  ;  of  Blanco  White,  in  his  Practical  and 
Internal  Evidence  against  Catholicism  ;  of  the  Confes- 
sions of  a  Catholic  Priest,  edited  by  Professor  S.  F.  B. 
Morse,  of  New  York  ;  of  Giustiniani ;  of  Hogue  ;  and  of 
others.  Thus  to  a  considerable  extent  the  force  of  these 
works,  even  on  many  thoughtful  and  candid  Protestants,  is 
neutralized. 

For  a  time,  then,  we  ought  to  rise  above  them,  and  to 
look  at  the  developments  of  history  on  a  great  scale  and 
at  the  testimony  of  Romanists  themselves.  If  we  take 
this  course  we  shall  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these  men 
have  spoken  the  truth,  and  that  without  exaggeration, 

14  *  (161) 


162        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

and,  indeed,  that  the  evil  tendencies  and  malignant  results 
of  the  system  cannot  be  exaggerated. 

There  is,  in  fact,  abundant  evidence  to  justify  every 
Protestant  in  this  nation  and  in  the  world  in  assuming  as 
a  practical  basis  of  action  the  following  positions  :  — 

That,  in  view  of  the  known  laws  of  human  nature  as 
established  by  God,  and  in  view  of  the  uniform  and  un- 
broken testimony  of  history,  the  celibacy  .of  the  clergy, 
especially  as  connected  with  the  duty  of  hearing  confes- 
sions, is  in  the  highest  sense  AN  IMMORAL  AND  CRIMINAL 
INSTITUTION,  hostile  beyond  the  power  of  conception  or 
expression  alike  to  the  religious,  civil,  and  social  interests 
of  mankind,  by  reason  of  its  malignant  and  corrupting 
power  on  the  clergy,  and,  through  them,  on  the  com- 
munity. 

Moreover,  though  some  of  the  Romish  clergy  may,  in 
consequence  of  peculiarities  of  constitution  or  incidental 
or  local  influences,  continue  continent,  yet  in  any  particular 
case  the  presumption  is  always  against  every  one  who  is 
under  the  influence  of  the  system  ;  nor  can  this  presumption 
be  removed  except  by  positive  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

And  finally,  such  being  the  state  of  facts,  there  ought  to 
be  formed  by  divine  aid,  throughout  this  country  and 
throughout  the  world,  a  sentiment  of  holy  indignation  so 
intense  and  all-pervading  that  it  shall  consume  the  system, 
and  with  it  the  energies  of  its  guilty  supporters,  as  with 
devouring  fire. 

It  is  proper,  in  disclosing  the  testimony  of  history,  to 
look  with  great  care  at  that  period  when  the  church  of 
Rome  was  in  the  ascendant  throughout  Europe,  when 
there  were  no  Protestants  who  had  power  to  affect  her  by 
thoir  public  sentiment,  but  when  all  things  were  as  she 
nad  made  them.  There  is  one  advantage  in  looking  first 


THE  VOICE  OF   HISTORY  AND   EXPERIENCE.  163 

at  this  period.     We  shall  rely  entirely  on  Roman  Catholic 
documents.    But  first  let  us  glance  at  the  earlier  ages. 


EARLY  AGES. 

Celibacy,  as  has  been  remarked,  sprung  from  heathenish 
errors.  At  first  it  was  encouraged  by  public  sentiment. 
In  385  Pope  Siricius  enjoined  it  on  the  clergy.  Other 
popes  and  early  provincial  councils  confirmed  the  injunc- 
tion. Yet  it  was  so  at  war  with  God  and  Nature  that  it 
led  to  constant  pollution  too  gross  to  be  described. 

The  same  was  true  of  the  early  monasteries.  "With  re- 
spect to  these  the  statement  of  Isaac  Taylor  is  comprehen- 
sive and  sufficient :  — 

"  It  were  better  to  sustain  in  patience  the  imputation 
of  advancing  exaggerated  statements,  and  of  giving  a 
stronger  color  to  an  argument  than  the  facts  of  the  case 
would  justify,  than  to  do  the  uninitiated  reader  so  serious 
an  injury  as  to  bring  to  light  the  evidence  that  bears  upon 
this  question.  An  appeal,  therefore,  is  made  to  whoever 
has  actually  perused,  or  at  least  looked  into,  the  ascetic 
writers,  from  Macarius,  Ephraem,  Palladius,  and  Cassian, 
downwards  to  those  of  the  twelfth  century.  On  the 
ground  of  the  evidence  which  might  from  those  sources 
be  adduced  a  general  result  may  be  stated  under  three 
heads  ;  namely,  — 

"  1.  That  the  monastic  vow  and  the  life  of  celibacy 

FAILED  TO  SECUEE  THE  PROFESSED  OBJECT  of  the  institu- 
tion iii  all  but  a  very  few  instances,  and  that  it  did  not  pro- 
mote that  purity  of  the  heart  which  was  acknowledged  to 
be  its  only  good  end. 

"  2.  That,  besides  the  evil  of  cutting  men  off  from  the 
common  enjoyments,  duties,  and  sympathies  of  life,  the 
work  of  maintaining  and  defending  their  chastity  (exterior 
and  interior)  absorbed  almost  the  whole  energies  of  those 
(a  very  few  excepted)  who  sincerely  labored  at  it ;  so  that 


164        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

to  be  chaste  in  fact  and  in  heart  was  pretty  nearly  the 
sum  of  what  the  monk  could  do,  even  with  the  aid  of 
starvation,  excessive  bodily  toils,  and  depletic  medicine ; 
to  say  nothing  of  his  prayers,  tears,  and  flagellations. 

"  3.  That  the  monastic  institution,  even  during  its  earlier 
and  better  era,  entailed  the  most  deplorable  miseries  and 
generated  the  foulest  and  most  abominable  practices  ;  so 
that,  for  every  veritable  saint  which  the  monastery  cherished, 
it  made  twenty  wretches,  whose  moral  condition  was  in 
the  last  degree  pitiable  or  loathsome. 

"Now,  shall  we  leave  these  propositions  unsupported  by 
proof?  or  will  the  Romanist,  the  pride  and  prop  of  whose 
church  is  monkery,  challenge  us  to  make  good  our  alle- 
gations ?  " 

This  tendency  of  the  system  of  celibacy  to  great  moral 
corruption  was  so  constant  and  notorious  that  efforts  were 
made  in  successive  centuries  to  effect  a  reformation  by 
various  councils,  at  which  time  indignant  disclosures  were 
made  of  the  real  state  of  facts.  There  were  no  Protestants 
at  that  time.  It  was  thought  that^  reforms  might  be  ef- 
fectually carried  on  within  the  church  ;  and,  in  order  to 
effect  so  desirable  a  purpose,  open  and  bold  disclosures 
were  made. 

TIME  OF  GREGORY  VII. 

Not  unfrequently,  in  spite  of  popes  and  councils,  those 
priests  who  desired  to  avoid  the  prevailing  profligacy  had 
recourse  to  marriage,  as  a  divine  and  honorable  ordinance 
of  God  ;  and  at  the  time  of  the  accession  of  the  ambitious 
and  imperious  Gregory  VII.,  in  the  eleventh  century, 
the  priesthood  very  extensively  lived  in  a  state  of  mat- 
rimony. 

But  he  saw  that,  if  this  state  of  things  continued,  they 
could  not  be  bound  as  his  purposes  required  to  the  Roman 
see,  nor  could  the  property  of  bishops  and  other  ecclesias- 


THE    VOICE   OP    HISTORY   AND   EXPERIENCE.  165 

tics  be  retained  in  the  hands  of  the  church.  Hence  he 
rigorously  enforced,  against  great  opposition,  the  celibacy 
of  the  clergy.  He  prohibited  the  laity  from  hearing  mass 
when  celebrated  by  a  married  priest.  The  married  clergy 
called  Gregory  the  patron  of  heresy  and  the  abetter  of  a 
mad  system,  who  by  violence  would  compel  men  to  live  as 
angels,  stop  the  course  of  nature,  and  give  the  slackened 
reins  to  all  pollution.  But  resistance  was  vain.  By  canons, 
decretals^  councils,  false  miracles,  threats,  violence,  arms, 
fraud,  flattery,  anathemas,  and  excommunications  he  car- 
ried the  day.  His  successors  followed  his  example.  That 
the  great  end  aimed  at  has  been  the  power  of  the  Romish 
corporation,  and  not  real  chastity,  is  obvious  from  the 
fact  that,  whilst  honorable  marriage  has  been  prohibited 
under  pain  of  excommunication,  concubinage  has  been  con- 
nived at,  and  sometimes  even  licensed. 

After  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  had,™  the  eleventh 
century,  been  thoroughly  enjoined,  in  the  thirteenth  century 
Innocent  III.  fully  established  and  enforced  auricular  con- 
fession ;  and  thus  was  the  existing  system  fully  organized. 
From  Gregory  VII.  to  the  time  of  the  reformation  Popery 
in  its  fullest  development  had  been  in  constant  operation  — 
a  space  of  four  centuries.  If,  then,  as  Bishop  Kenrick  af- 
firms, celibacy  and  the  confessional  tend  to  eminent  holi- 
ness, the  clergy,  the  church,  and  the  world  should  have 
been  eminently  sanctified.  How  was  it  ? 


CENTURIES  BEFORE  THE  REFORMATION. 

"We  will  appeal  first,  not  to  an  individual,  but  to  a 
council  —  the  council  of  Paris  in  1429.  From  them  we 
receive  the  astounding  information  that  not  only  were  the 
clergy  incontinent  and  immoral,  but  that  they  were  noto- 


166       THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

riously  so,  to  such  a  degree  as  to  scandalize  and  degrade 
the  whole  Christian  world. 

In  the  preamble  to  a  canon  designed  to  reform  the 
existing  state  of  things  they  say,  — 

"  On  account  of  the  crime  of  concubinage,  with  which 
multitudes  of  the  clergy  and  monks  are  infected,  the 
church  of  God  and  the  whole  clergy  are  held  in  derision, 
abomination,  and  dishonor  among  all  nations ;  and  that 
abominable  crime  has  so  prevailed  in  the  house  of  God 
that  Christians  do  not  now  consider  mere  fornication  a 
mortal  sin."  —  Council  of  Paris  1429,  c.  xxiii. ;  Mansi, 
xxviii.  p.  1107. 

Let  it  here  be  noticed  that  we  have  not  a  Protestant 
slander,  nor  the  assertion  of  an  individual,  but  the  solemn 
decision  of  a  grave  Roman  Catholic  council,  assembled  in 
Paris,  the  capital  of  France,  the  centre  of  Europe.  The 
disclosure  of  facts  is  clear  and  terrific  ;  but  the  attempted 
remedy  was  powerless. 

Turning  from  this  council  to  the  councils  of  Yalladolid 
and  Toledo,  in  Spain,  the  first  in  1322,  the  other  in  1473, 
we  find  similar  testimony.  The  first  condemns  "  the 
outrageously  dissolute  lives  of  a  portion  of  the  clergy, 
who,  regardless  of  reputation  and  safety,  lived  in  public 
concubinage."  The  latter  represented  them  as  living  in 
the  filthiest  atrocity,  and  as  contemptible  to  the  people, 
and  as  daring  to  touch  the  body  of  the  Lord  with  polluted 
hands.  A  German  council,  in  1225,  accused  the  priest- 
hood of  unchastity,  voluptuousness,  and  obscenity.  Two 
councils  in  Cologne,  in  1536  and  1549,  even  after  the  ref- 
ormation, repeated  and  augmented  these  charges.  Ac- 
cording to  them,  monks,  nuns,  and  clergy  were  alike  de- 
filed. Of  all  others,  the  Italian  and  Roman  clergy  were 
most  licentious.  In  1538  a  select  council,  convened  by 
Paul  IV.,  declared  that  they  kept  courtesans  in  splendid 


THE   VOICE   OF   HISTORY   AND   EXPERIENCE.  167 

palaces,  who  at  noonday  walked  or  rode  through  the  city, 
attended  by  the  clergy  and  nobility,  the  friends  of  the 
cardinals.  It  is  notorious  that  the  Roman  pontiffs  were 
often  as  filthy  as  their  clergy,  and  exemplified  every  spe- 
cies of  licentiousness  and  pollution.  Fornication,  adul- 
tery, incest,  and  sodomy  are  in  the  list  of  their  crimes. 
This  testimony  of  Romish  councils  could  be  sustained  by 
that  of  Ramish  historians  and  divines  too  many  to  re- 
count. Nor  is  their  testimony  local ;  it  relates  to  every 
nation  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Rome.  Especially  in  the 
councils  of  Constance  and  of  Basil  were  most  astounding 
disclosures  made  by  those  who  were  urging  the  necessity 
of  a  reform.  So  also  the  statements  of  Nicholas  de  Cla- 
menge,  J.  .Trithemius,  Stephen,  Bishop  of  Brandenburg, 
and  many  others  are  horrific. 

Indeed  the  whole  church  and  the  whole  world  groaned 
under  the  all-pervading  corruption  generated  by  the  law 
of  celibacy.  All  historians,  all  councils,  are  full  of  the 
theme  ;  but  language  cannot  utter  all  the  fearful,  the  ap- 
palling truth.  The  eminently  learned,  impartial,  and  accu- 
rate Gieseler  gives  the  following  brief  view  of  the  state 
of  the  clergy  during  the  fifteenth  century  up  to  the  time 
of  the  reformation,  sustaining  his  assertions  by  the  irref- 
utable testimony  of  numerous  Roman  Catholic  writers 
and  councils  :  — 

"  Their  chief  offence,  their  INCONTINENCE,  seemed  to  grow 
worse  the  more  there  was  done  to  restrain  it.  The  severe 
lectures  read  them  on  the  subject  at  the  councils  of  Con- 
stance and  Basil  had  as  little  influence  upon  the  conduct 
of  most  of  the  clergy  there  assembled  as  the  decrees 
passed  at  those  councils  had  on  the  state  of  the  church  at 
large  in  this  respect.  In  no  century  had  there  been  so 
many  decrees  passed  against  the  concubinage  of  the  clergy 
as  in  the  fifteenth ;  yet  in  none  were  complaints  so  com- 
mon of  their  •  incontinence,  (which  IN  ITALY  degenerated 


168        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

even  into  unnatural  vices,)  as  well  as  derision  and  lamen- 
tation over  the  inefficiency  of  all  the  means  used  to  restrain 
them.  The  number  of  the  offenders  made  it  difficult  or 
impossible  to  carry  into  effect  the  more  severe  punishments  ; 
whilst  the  avarice  of  the  bishops  was  easily  gratified  by 
substituting  therefor  pecuniary  mulcts,  which  soon  changed 
into  an  annual  tax.  The  commonness  of  the  offence  made 
it  seem  to  the  clergy  themselves  a  light  thing.  Of  course 
the  laity  could  not  be  expected  to  view  it  in  any  other 
light ;  and  in  consequence  the  vice  increased  to  a  fearful 
degree,  so  as  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  to  give 
birth  to  a  new  and  disgusting  disease.  As  early  as  the 
council  of  Constance  it  was  openly  said  that  nothing  could 
remedy  these  evils  but  to  allow  the  marriage  of  priests ; 
but  such  was  the  strength  of  prejudice  that  men  in  other 
respects  liberal  in  their  views  —  as,  for  instance,  the  Chan- 
cellor Gerson  —  resisted  every  effort  to  change  the  existing 
laws  of  the  church.  There  always  continued  to  be  intel- 
ligent men  who  advocated  the  marriage  of  priests  ;  but 
THE  INTERESTS  OF  THE  HIERARCHY  were  too  deeply  involved 
in  the  question  to  expect  them  to  yield." — Yol.  iii.  pp. 
278-283,  American  edition. 


CHARACTER  OF  BISHOPS  AND  COUNCILS. 

We  need  not  wonder  that  the  decrees  of  councils  pro- 
duced no  effect,  since  it  was  well  known  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  bishops  composing  them  were  guilty  of  the 
same  offence,  and  none  were  free  from  the  suspicion.  In- 
deed at  the  councils  themselves  many  of  the  clergy  openly 
had  their  concubines.  Hence  Petrus  de  Pulka,  professor 
in  Vienna,  said,  in  an  address  delivered  before  the  council 
of  Constance,  "Attend  and  consider!  Behold  how  the 
clergy  of  the  Roman  court,  which,  from  the  commence- 
ment of  this  schism,  is  regarded  as  depraved  beyond  hu- 
man depravity,  and  in  like  manner  the  clergy  of  this 
diocese, — nay,  more,  of  this  city,  and  of  the  synod  itself, — 


THE   VOICE   OF    HISTORY   AXD    EXPERIENCE.  169 

obey  our  injunctions  !  Consider,  I  pray  you,  whether  from 
reverence  to  this  sacred  synod,  in  whose  presence  they  daily 
are,  they  have  even  in  the  least  degree  amended  their  dis- 
solute lives.  Undeniably  the  clergy  of  the  Roman  court 
are  affirmed  to  retain  their  concubines  without  shame  be- 
fore all."  The  Viennese  manuscript  asserts  that  there 
were  in  attendance  on  the  council  of  Constance,  by  which 
Huss  was  burned  for  heresy,  fifteen  hundred  common  or 
public  women. 

This  state  of  things  in  the  council  of  Lyons  was  still 
worse.  It  totally  demoralized  the  city  where  it  was  con- 
vened. 

The  celebrated  Chancellor  Gerson,  who  was  one  of  the 
ruling  spirits  of  the  council  of  Constance,  in  his  answer 
to  Saignet  acknowledged  the  impossibility  of  checking  the 
incontinence  of  the  clergy,  and  accommodated  his  theory 
of  morals  to  the  fact.  He  held  that  by  incontinency  the 
clergy  did  not  violate  their  vows,  but  by  marriage  they 
did  ;  for  they  merely  vowed  not  to  contract  marriage,  but 
did  not  vow  to  be  continent.  To  remedy  the  evil  as  far 
as  may  be,  he  recommends  "  to  sin  in  that  way  as  little  as 
possible,  and  meantime  to  do  as  many  good  deeds  as  pos- 
sible, and  to  be  very  careful  when  they  do  sin  not  to  do  it 
openly,  or  on  the  festivals,  or  in  sacred  places,  or  with, 
married  persons."  "What  must  have  been  the  effect  of  the 
Romish  system  of  celibacy  on  morals  when  the  most  emi- 
nent man  in  the  church  at  that  time  could  thus  write? 

The  decree  of  the  council  of  Basil  in  1435,  as  Gieseler 
states  it,  prohibited  all  priests  to  live  in  open  concubinage. 
This  provision  would  seem  to  be  based  upon  the  moral 
principles  of  Chancellor  Gerson.  At  a  synod  in  Breslau 
and  in  various  councils,  especially  in  Italy,  fines  were  im- 
posed on  such  offenders  ;  and,  in  spite  of  decrees  of  other 
councils,  this  practice  was  extensively  adopted  by  the 
15 


170         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

bishops  —  thus  making  the  vices  of  the  clergy  a  source  of 
gain. 

Agrippa  mentions  a  bishop  who  boasted  of  having  in 
his  diocese  eleven  thousand  priests,  who  severally  paid 
their  superior  every  year  a  guinea  for  leave  to  keep  con- 
cubines. (See  Edgar,  p.  526.) 


POPULAR  BELIEF  AND  FEELING. 

Gieseler  says,  "  The  laity  were  glad  in  any  way  to  se- 
cure their  families  from  the  attacks  of  priestly  lust,  and  fa- 
vored, or  even  furthered,  the  permanent  connection  of  their 
priests  with  concubines."  —  Vol.  iii.  p.  83. 

Nicholas  of  Clamenge  says,  "  The  laity  are  so  thorough- 
ly convinced  that  all  the  clergy  are  incontinent  that  in 
very  many  parishes  they  will  not  tolerate  a  priest  unless 
he  has  a  concubine.  This  they  do  to  defend  their  wives, 
who  even  thus  are  by  no  means  out  of  danger."  (Giese- 
ler, iii.  83.)  The  Swiss  especially  took  this  course.  ^Eneas 
Sylvius,  who  became  pope,  says  of  the  Frieslanders,  "They 
are  unwilling  to  receive  priests  who  have  no  wives,  fear- 
ing that  they  will  defile  those  of  other  men  ;  for  they  re- 
gard it  as  unnatural  and  impossible  for  unmarried  men  to 
live  in  continence."  —  Gieseler,  iii.  83. 

This  was  also  the  opinion  of  j^Eneas  Sylvius  himself; 
and  on  this  ground  he  defended  himself  when  in  the  coun- 
cil of  Basil  he  received  from  his  father  the  intelligence  of 
the  birth  of  a  son.  Accordingly  when  cardinal  and  when 
pope  he  conceded  that,  viewing  the  question  simply  on  the 
ground  of  principle,  the  law  of  clerical  celibacy  ought  to 
be  abolished. 

Alvarus  Pelagius,  speaking  of  Spain  and  another  prov- 
ince, says  that  in  them  the  number  of  the  children  of  the 


THE  VOICE   OF   HISTORY  AND  •  EXPERIENCE.  171 

laity  little  exceeded  that  of  the  children  of  the  priests.  In 
Ireland  and  Norway  a  similar  state  of  things  existed,  and 
the  synods  only  prohibited  public  concubinage. 


PRESENT  STATE  OF  THING*. 

This  state  of  open  corruption  did  not  at  once  disappear 
even  after  the  reformation.  And  even  now  the  same  great 
river  of  pollution  flows  through  Romish  countries,  al- 
though its  course  is  more  under  ground. 

On  this  point  the  learned,  cautious,  and  discriminating 
Isaac  Taylor  says,  "  It  is  fair  to  assume  that,  of  a  body  of 
men  taken  at  hazard  from  the  mass  and  placed  under  the 
restraint  (or  rather  the  profession)  of  continence,  a  con- 
siderable portion,  perhaps  a  third,  will  very  early  in  their 
course  throw  off  every  thing  but  their  hypocrisy  and  be- 
come thoroughly  profligate.  The  notorious  condition  of 
those  countries  where  nothing  has  forbidden  the  natural 
expansion  of  the  Romish  system  would  warrant  our  af- 
firming that  two  thirds  of  its  clergy  come  under  such  a 
description.  Nay,  perhaps  our  English  credulity  would 
be  ridiculed  at  Madrid,  Grenada,  Lisbon,  Florence,  Lima, 
or  Rio  Janeiro  if  we  presumed  that  more  than  a  very  few 
of  the  sacerdotal  class  were  not  utterly  debauched."  —  Fa- 
naticism, p.  137. 


.CHAPTER    VII. 

BISHOP  KENRICK'S  DEFENCE. 

MANY  wonders  occur  in  the  history  of  this  world  — 
among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  bold  assertions  of 
Bishop  Kenrick  in  defence  of  the  confessional  in  the 
hands  of  an  unmarried  clergy. 

In  the  number  of  Brownson's  Quarterly  for  July,  1846, 
is  an  article  intended  as  a  defence  of  the  Romish  system 
of  the  confessional.  We  have  good  authority  for  ascrib- 
ing it  to  the  pen  of  Bishop  Kenrick.  Public  attention  has 
of  late  been  somewhat  directed  towards  his  own  writings 
on  this  subject,  and  he  seems  to  feel  that  he  is  called  on 
to  step  forward  in  defence  of  the  system.  Bishop  Kenrick 
is,  undoubtedly,  one  of  the  ablest  defenders  of  Romanism 
in  this  country  ;  and  his  works  on  doctrinal  and  moral  the- 
ology, as  well  as  his  defence  of  the  Papal  supremacy,  indi- 
cate no  small  degree  of  natural  ability.  If  he  were  but 
on  the  side  of  truth  he  would  be  an  able  writer  indeed  : 
as  it  is,  his  naturally  good  powers  are  continually  crippled 
by  the  false  and  absurd  system  which  he  has  undertaken 
to  defend. 

He  says,  in  the  language  of  another,  "  If  it  led  to  licen- 
tiousness or  danger,  that  licentiousness  or  that  danger 
would  have  come  to  light,  and  there  would  be  tongues 
enough  to  tell  it." 

This  implies  that  such  licentiousness  and  danger  have 

(172) 


BISHOP  KENRICK'S  DEFENCE.  173 

not  come  to  light  and  have  not  been  told  by  millions  of 
tongues.     On  this  point  let  history  testify. 

He,  however,  does  not  go  radically  into  the  defence  of 
the  confessional,  because,  as  he  assures  us,  he  regards 
it  as  needless  to  reply  at  great  length  "  to  the  charges 
advanced  against  an  institution  which  is  essentially  di- 
rected to  wash  away  the  defilements  of  sin,  and  which 
is  in  the  church  like  a  majestic  river,  whose  waters 
absorb  the  impurities  which  they  meet  with  in  their 
course." 

On  the  other  hand,  he  seems  to  repose  most  confidence 
in  an  appeal  to  the  observation  of  American  Protestants, 
and  also  to  the  convictions  of  American  Romanists.  With 
affecting  simplicity  he  says,  p.  337,  "  Without  referring 
our  readers  to  distant  or  past  evidence,  we  at  once  ap- 
peal to  the  instinctive  feeling  of  the  Catholic  community 
around  us." 

Is  there  not  crafty  philosophy  in  this  ?  One  would  think 
that  the  proper  way  to  test  the  Romish  system  of  the  con- 
fessional would  be  to  go  to  those  communities  in  which  it 
has  exercised  its  full  power,  unobstructed  by  Protestant- 
ism, and  developed  its  mature  results.  For  example  :  the 
pope  has  taken  great  pains  to  purge  Italy  by  fire  and 
sword  of  the  least  leaven  of  Protestantism.  Why  not, 
then,  appeal  to  Italy,  and  hold  up  the  spotless  purity  of 
society  there,  where  the  confessional  has  poured  out  its 
full  stream  of  purifying  influence  for  ages  ?  Why  not 
give  us  a  little  of  the  history  of  morals  at  Rome,  the  cen- 
tre of  the  system  ?  0,  no  ;  the  bishop  does  not  inteud  to 
furnish  us  with  any  such  distant  or  past  evidence.  With 
striking  sagacity  he  comes  into  the  midst  of  communities 
where  Protestantism  is  in  the  ascendency  and  has  created 
a  high  tone  of  morals ;  where  Romanists  are  a  small 
minority,  surrounded  by  vigilant  eyes,  exposed  to  the 
15* 


174         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

searching  scrutiny  of  Protestant  presses,  over  which  Ro- 
manism has  not  yet  been  able  to  establish  a  censorship. 
Yes  ;  he  comes  here  and  makes  his  appeal  to  Catholics  in 
these  circumstances  for  evidence  of  the  purifying  power 
of  the  confessional.  We  tell  the  bishop,  in  all  frankness, 
that  he  very  much  underrates  the  intellect  of  his  Prot- 
estant readers  if  he  thinks  that  they  are  to  be  affected  by 
such  reasoning  as  this.  But  as  he  does  not  see  fit  to  refer 
his  readers  to  distant  or  past  evidence,  we  shall  endeavor 
in  some  degree  to  supply  his  lack  of  service. 


EXPERIENCE  OF  SPAIN. 

"We  will,  then,  summon  the  bishop  and  our  readers  to  a 
country  eminently  blessed  with  Romish  influences  ;  fa- 
vored as  the  great  head  quarters  of  the  Inquisition,  which, 
by  fire  and  sword  and  tortures  ineffable,  has  thoroughly 
purged  out  the  leaven  of  Protestantism.  We  need  not 
say  that  this  country  is  SPAIN. 

Is  it  not  a  just  and  equitable  rule  to  look  for  the  true 
tendencies  of  a  system  where  it  has  a  fair  field  and  full 
opportunity  to  develop  itself,  and  nothing  to  check  its 
course  ?  Here,  then,  ought  we  to  see  the  full  power  of 
the  confessional,  as  a  majestic  river  washing  away  the  de- 
filements of  sin. 

But  how  was  it  ?  We  answer,  It  was  so  ordered  in  the 
providence  of  God  that  precisely  here  was  made  in  the 
most  conspicuous  manner,  and  in  sight  of  all  nations,  a 
public  display  of  the  ineffable  pollutions  and  defilements 
of  the  system,  and  of  the  utter  want  of  power  and  also 
of  hearty  will  on  the  part  of  the  managers  of  the  system 
to  prevent  them. 

It  appears,  then,  that,  at  the  close  of  half  a  century  after 


BISHOP  KEXRICK'S  DEFENCE.  175 

the  reformation,  Lutheran  opinions  have  so  far  prevailed  in 
Spain  as  to  call  for  four  autos  da  fe  against  the  Lutherans, 
two  in  Valladolid  and  two  in  Seville.  It  was  also  dis- 
covered that  the  tendency  towards  Lutheranism  was  in- 
creased by  a  general  persuasion  of  the  profligacy  of  the 
priests,  and  in  particular  by  the  public  accusation  that 
they  used  the  confessional  as  a  means  of  seduction.  This 
led  to  sundry  remarks,  not  peculiarly  agreeable,  with 
respect  to  the  Roman  church  as  the  mother  of  harlots  and 
of  abominations. 

So  pressing  was  the  exigency  of  the  case  that  report 
was  made  to  the  pope,  and  he  felt  compelled  to  interpose. 
Accordingly,  on  January  18,  1556,  Paul  IY.  addressed  a 
brief  to  the  inquisitors  of  Grenada,  in  which  he  com- 
manded them  to  prosecute  those  priests  whom  the  public 
voice  accused  of  seduction,  and  not  to  pardon  one  of  them. 
The  Archbishop  of  Grenada  and  the  council  of  the  Inquisi- 
tion decided  that  the  publication  of  the  brief  in  the  usual 
form  would  produce  great  inconveniences,  and  that  prudence 
and  moderation  were  needed.  They  therefore,  to  remedy 
the  evil,  privately  notified  the  confessors  in  general  of  the 
purport  of  the  brief,  and  said  nothing  to  the  people. 

This  course  convinced  the  pope  that  the  abuse  was  not 
confined  to  the  kingdom  of  Grenada.  Accordingly,  in  1561, 
Pius  IY.  addressed  a  brief  to  Yaldes,  the  inquisitor  general, 
authorizing  him  to  proceed  against  the  guilty  confessors  in 
all  the  domains  of  Philip,  the  most  Catholic  king.  This 
bull  affirmed  the  crime  to  exist  "  in  the  kingdoms  of  Spain 
and  in  the  cities  and  dioceses  thereof." 

It  seems  to  have  been  still  judged  inexpedient  by  the 
ecclesiastics  and  inquisitors  in  most  provinces  to  give 
this  notice.  But  in  some,  and  especially  in  Seville,  the  in- 
quisitors gave  the  required  public  notice  and  called  for 
information  against  the  guilty,  requiring  all  females  thus 


17G        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

abused  and  all  privy  to  such  acts  to  inform  the  Inquisition 
within  thirty  days,  attaching  severe  penalties  to  the  neglect 
or  disobedience  of  the  injunction.  Then  followed  a  scene 
unparalleled  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  but,  in  the  prov- 
idence of  God,  it  was  a  true  and  fearful  revelation  of 
Popery.  In  the  words  of  Edgar,  "  Maids  and  matrons  of 
the  nobility  and  peasantry,  of  every  rank  and  situation, 
crowded  to  the  Inquisition.  The  fair  informers  in  Seville 
alone  were  so  numerous  that  all  the  inquisitors  and  twenty 
notaries  were  insufficient  in  thirty  days  to  take  their  deposi- 
tions. Thirty  additional  days  had  three  several  times  to  be 
appointed  for  the  reception  of  informations.  And  finally 
the  multitude  of  criminals,  the  jealousy  of  husbands,  and 
the  odium  which  the  discovery  threw  on  auricular  confes- 
sion and  the  Popish  priesthood  caused  the  sacred  tribunal 
to  quash  the  prosecution  and  to  consign  the  depositions  to 
oblivion."  (See  Edgar's  Variations  of  Popery,  pp.  528, 
529,  and  McCrie's  History  of  the  Reformation  in  Spain, 
p.  242.) 

For  authorities  to  sustain  these  facts,  Edgar  refers  to 
Gonsalvus,  Lorente,  and  Limborch.  The  pungency  and 
particularity  of  the  statement  seem  to  come  from  Gon- 
salvus, whom  Lorente  calls  Raynaldus  Gonzalvius  Mon- 
tanus,  and  McCrie  Montanus.  All  agree  that  the  accusa- 
tions ceased  because  the  demand  of  the  Inquisition  was 
repealed.  But  Lorente  thinks  that  Gonsalvus  exaggerates 
the  number  of  the  informers.  It  were  to  be  hoped  that  it 
is  so  for  the  honor  of  humanity  ;  but,  on  any  view  of  the 
case,  what  can  be  conceived  of  more  horrible  than  such  a 
disclosure  of  priestly  villany  and  depravity  ? 

Those  who  remember  the  account  given  by  Gavin  of  the 
discovery  and  exposure  of  the  seraglio  of  the  inquisitors 
in  Arragon  by  a  Spanish  and  French  army,  in  1706,  will 
not  have  much  faith  in  the  purity  of  the  inquisitors  of  an 


BISHOP  KENRICK'S  DEFENCE.  177 

earlier  generation.  At  all  events,  they  manifested  a 
remarkable  leniency  towards  the  crime  of  seduction.  To 
be  a  Lutheran  was  intolerable.  Nothing,  could  atone  for 
it  but  to  be  burned  at  a  public  auto  da  fe.  Lorente,  how- 
ever, informs  us  that  those  guilty  of  seduction  by  the 
confessional  were  never  publicly  exposed  at  an  auto  da  fe. 
They  made  a  private  confession  and  abjuration  of  their 
practical  heresy  and  of  all  others,  and  were  then  absolved 
and  confined  for  a  time  in  a  convent ! 

Here,  then,  we  have  a  fair  illustration  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  confessional  washed  away  the  pollution  of  Spain. 
So,  too,  would  it  now  purify  America,  if  Romanism  had 
had  the  ascendency  here  that  it  has  had  in  Spain. 

Does  this  look  like  the  course  of  a  majestic  river,  washing 
away  the  defilements  of  sin  ?  or  like  a  part  of  her  system 
upon  whose  forehead  was  a  name  written,  Mystery,  Babylon 
the  great,  the  mother  of  harlots  and  abominations  of  the 
earth?  Do  not  such  results  flow  inevitably  from  the  con- 
fessional in  the  hands  of  an  unmarried  clergy?  Nor  is 
this  a  state  of  things  peculiar  to  Spain.  It  is  impossible 
to  make  such  a  system  tend  to  any  thing  but  pollution.  It 
is  in  direct  violation  of  the  great  laws  of  human  society 
ordained  by  God  himself,  and  it  creates  an  intensity  of 
temptation  that  on  the  great  scale  never  was  resisted,  and 
never  will  be.  In  the  words  of  the  Eclectic  Review,  "  It 
is  a  terrible  reality,  acting  alike  on  priests  and  people  in 
Catholic  countries,  making  the  priest's  life  a  true  misery, 
converting  him  into  a  spy  and  a  tool,  compelling  him  who 
has  vowed  before  God  to  proclaim  the  truth  into  a  studied 
and  inevitable  supporter  of  the  most  infamous  fraud,  a 
corrupter  of  the  minds  of  the  young,  and  a  tyrant  where  he 
should  be  the  friend."  And  let  any  one  study  thoroughly 
the  state  of  things  in  Italy,  and  he  will  find  it  worse,  if 
worse  be  possible,  than  even  in  Spain,  and  worst  of  all  at 


178         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Rome.  And  in  Germany,  Austria,  France,  Mexico,  South 
America,  and  Cuba,  is  there  any  reason  why  the  same 
system  should  not  produce  the  same  results  ?  To  prove 
that  such  is  the  fact,  we  shall  proceed  to  state  a  few  more 
facts  for  the  consideration  of  the  bishop. 

Meantime  we  repeat  the  strong  statement  of  the  Ec- 
lectic Review,  than  which  nothing  more  true  was  ever 
uttered :  — 

"IT  IS  BECAUSE  THE  CONFESSIONAL  HAS  BECOME  THE 
SOUL  TRAP  OP  SATAN  AND  THE  WELL  OF  ALL  SPIRITUAL  POL- 
LUTIONS THAT  THE  POPULAR  MIND  HAS  REVOLTED  FROM  THE 
SYSTEM  THROUGHOUT  GERMANY,  AND  WILL  REVOLT  FROM  IT, 
FINALLY,  EVERY  WHERE." 

And  shall  America  nourish  a  system  of  pollution  which 
even  Catholic  Europe,  with  all  its  degradation,  is  about  to 
reject  and  abhor  ? 


PROOF  FROM  BISHOP  KENRICK  AND  PAPAL  LEGISLATION. 

Is  it  to  be  supposed,  then,  that  Bishop  Kenrick  knew 
these  facts  when  he  said  of  the  confessional,  "  If  it  led  to 
licentiousness  or  danger,  that  licentiousness  or  that  danger 
would  have  come  to  light,  and  there  would  be  tongues 
enough  to  tell  it "  ?  We  answer,  Certainly  ;  there  is  the 
best  possible  evidence  of  the  fact  —  even  the  incidental 
testimony  of  the'bishop  himself. 

He  well  knew,  and  will  not  dare  to  deny  it,  as  will  soon 
appear,  that  the  evils  of  clerical  seduction  by  means  of  the 
confessional  even  since  the  reformation  have  been  so  great 
in  European  countries  as  to  cause  a  scandal  so  widespread 
as  to  endanger  the  interests  of  the  Papacy.  Urged  by 
such  considerations,  he  well  knew  that  several  popes  in 


BISHOP  KENBICKS  DEFENCE.  179 

succession  were  compelled  to  issue  bull  after  bull  designed 
to  rectify  the  evil.  Moreover  we  have  his  own  confession 
on  the  subject. 

What,  then,  does  Bishop  Kenrick  say  as  it  regards  the 
use  of  the  confessional  as  a  means  of  priestly  seduction  ? 
He  confesses,  in  express  terms,  that  it  has  been  so  used, 
and  he  occupies  seven  pages  of  the  third  volume  of  his 
treatise  on  moral  theology  in  stating  the  legislation  that 
the  existence  of  this  practice  has  rendered  necessary  in 
the  Romish  church.  These  pages  occur  in  Tractatus  xix., 
De  Poenitentia,  chap.  x.  sect,  vi.,  entitled  De  Crimine 
Solicitationis,  vol.  iii.  pp.  235-240.  Of  this  legislation  I 
shall  give  some  account  in  its  place.  I  will  here  in  general 
remark,  that  no  one  can  read  these  seven  pages  in  Bishop 
Kenrick  and  not  find  in  them  internal  evidence  of  the 
widespread  existence  in  Romish  communities  of  the  very 
things  alleged  by  converted  Romish  priests,  and  which 
Romanists  call  slander.  He  will  find  detailed  legislation  on 
the  subject  of  seduction  by  the  confessional  of  such  a  kind 
as  never  could  exist  without  a  corresponding  cause  in  the 
state  of  the  body  politic  demanding  it.  What  that  cause 
is  was  clearly  disclosed  in  the  progress  of  the  effort  in 
Spain  which  we  have  already  detailed,  put  forth  by  the 
full  power  of  the  pope  and  the  Inquisition,  to  prosecute 
and  punish  those  who  had  been  guilty  of  priestly  seduction 
by  means  of  the  confessional.  The  attempt  proved  that 
the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  were  so  deeply  implicated 
that  it  became  necessary  to  abandon  the  prosecution  in 
order  to  save  their  characters  from  ruin. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  the  confession  of  Bishop  Kenrick 
himself.  At  the  commencement  of  his  discussion  of  the 
topic  of  priestly  seduction  by  means  of  the  confessional 
he  writes  as  follows.  We  translate  from  the  Latin :  — 


THE  PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 


SECTION  VI. —  CONCERNING  THE   CRIME   OF  SEDUCTION. 

"  We  scarcely  dare  to  speak  concerning  that  atrocious 
crime  in  which  the  office  of  hearing  confession  is  perverted 
to  the  ruin  of  souls  by  impious  men  under  the  influence 
of  their  lusts.  Would  that  we  could  regard  it  as  solely 
a  conception  of  the  mind  and  as  something  invented  by 
the  enemies  of  the  faith  for  the  purposes  of  slander  !  But 
it  is  not  fit  that  we  should  be  ignorant  of  the  decrees 
which  the  pontiffs  have  issued  to  defend  the  sacredness  of 
this  sacrament." 

So,  then,  Bishop  Kenrick  himself  being  judge,  the  crime 
of  priestly  seduction  by  means  of  the  confessional  is  not  a 
mere  imaginary  conception,  but  an  atrocious  reality.  It 
is  not  a  slander  of  the  enemies  of  the  church,  but  a  noto- 
rious historic  truth  —  so  notorious  that  it  is  in  vain  to 
deny  it  —  so  notorious  that  many  pontiffs  have  been 
obliged  to  issue  their  decrees  to  defend  the  sacredness  of 
the  sacrament  of  confession. 

Well,  too,  does  Bishop  Kenrick  say  that  it  is  not  fit 
that  we  should  be  ignorant  of  these  decrees.  It  is  not  fit. 
We  will  endeavor  to  dissipate  this  ignorance.  They  throw 
great  light  on  the  subject.  They  reveal  the  existence  of 
a  state  of  society  in  Catholic  communities  which  nothing 
but  the  system  of  the  private  confession  of  females  to  an 
unmarried  priesthood  could  produce.  And  when  Bishop 
Kenrick  now  comes  forward  to  advocate  the  cause  of  all 
these  evils,  and  to  urge  its  universal  introduction  among 
us,  we  will  do  all  in  our  power  to  dissipate  the  ignorance 
that  still  exists  on  a  system  so  powerful  and  so  pernicious. 


PRINCIPLES  OF  REASONING  STATED  AND  APPLIED. 

But,  before  we  proceed  to  consider  the  Papal  legislation 


BISHOP  KENRICK'S  DEFENCE.  181 

on  this  subject,  we  will  consider  the  proper  mode  of  rea- 
soning from  such  legislation. 

Professor  William  Smyth,  of  the  University  of  Cam- 
bridge, England,  in  order  to  throw  light  on  the  state  of 
society  among  the  barbarians,  devotes  part  of  one  lecture 
to  a  consideration  of  their  codes  of  laws.  After  giving 
a  general  view  of  the  salic  code,  he  proceeds  to  illustrate 
the  manner  of  reasoning  from  such  codes.  We  quote  a 
part  of  his  statements,  with  the  design  of  applying  the 
same  mode  of  reasoning  to  the  Papal  legislation  as  stated 
by  Bishop  Kenrick  :  — 

"  Whenever  the  laws  of  a  nation  can  be  perused,  a  va- 
riety of  conclusions  can  be  drawn  from  them  which  the 
laws  themselves  were  never  intended  to  convey —  conclu- 
sions that  relate  to  the  manners  and  situation  of  a  nation 
more  certain  and  important  than  can  in  any  other  way  be 
obtained.  I  will  give  a  specimen  of  this  sort  of  reason- 
ing ;  and  my  hearer  must  hereafter  employ  the  same  sort 
of  reasoning  on  these  codes  and  on  every  system  of  laws 
which  he  has  ever  an  opportunity  of  considering.  For 
instance,  there  is  one  head  that  respects  petty  thefts  of 
different  kinds. 

"He  who  stole  a  knife  was  to  be  fined  fifteen  solidi; 
but,  though  he  stole  as  much  flax  as  he  could  carry,  he 
was  only  tined  three.  Iron  was,  therefore,  difficult  to  pro- 
cure, or  its  manufacture  not  easy.  The  fertility  of  the 
land  had  done  more  for  these  Franks  than  their  own  pa- 
tience or  ingenuity  ;  i.  e.,  they  were  barbarians.  Again  : 
he  who  killed  another  was  only  fined  ;  but  we  are  not  to 
suppose  that  this  arose  from  any  superior  tenderness  of 
disposition.  There  is  a  distinct  head  in  these  laws  (the 
thirty-first)  on  the  subject  of  mutilations ;  the  very  first 
clause  runs  thus  :  — 

"  '  If  any  one  shall  cut  off  a  foot,  or  hand,  or  dig  out  an 
eye,  or  cut  off  an  ear  or  nose  of  any  one/  &c. 

'•  The  most  horrible  excesses  evidently  took  place. 
Nothing  more  need  be  said  of  the  manners  or  disposition 
of  a  people  in  whose  laws  such  outrages  are  particularized. 
16 


182        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

"  That  union  of  tenderness  and  courage,  of  sympathy 
and  fortitude,  of  the  softer  and  severer  virtues  which 
forms  the  perfection  of  the  human  character  is  not  to  be 
found  among  savage  nations  ;  it  is  only  the  occasional  and 
inestimable  production  of  civilized  life. 

"  Again :  there  is  mention  made  of  hedges  and  en- 
closures. Agriculture  had,  therefore,  made  some  prog- 
ress." 

In  the  same  way,  from  the  laws  of  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome  we  can  reason  as  to  the  state  Of  society  in  those  na- 
tions ;  for  laws  are  not  formed  on  mere  theory,  to  guard 
against  imaginary  crimes,  nor  do  they  enter  into  the  minute 
detail  of  unknown  crimes  by  way  of  anticipation  :  they 
are  designed  to  be  a  defence  against  real  and  existing 
evils. 

So  is  it  with  regard  to  the  legislation  of  the  popes  on 
this  subject ;  for  it  is  incredible  that  any  pope  would 
have  descended  into  the  particulars  of  all  the  various 
modes  of  priestly  seduction,  and  detailed  things  so  offen- 
sive and  abominable,  even  the  idea  and  the  very  sugges- 
tion of  which  tend  to  injure  the  priesthood,  if  the  corrupt 
workings  of  the  confessional  had  not  brought  out  all  these 
details  in  fact. 

We  easily  see  the  evil  tendencies  of  the  confessional  in 
theory  ;  but  here  we  see  them  developed  in  real  life,  and 
our  convictions  of  the  evils  of  the  system  are  greatly 
deepened.  It  is  always  perfectly  plain  that  the  confes- 
sional is  liable  to  be  used  for  purposes  of  seduction  in 
numerous  ways.  It  is  also  plain  that  the  priests  are,  by 
compulsory  celibacy,  placed  in  circumstances  of  the  high- 
est temptation  to  use  it  for  such  purposes.  No  system 
can  be  more  perfectly  framed  to  secure  such  an  end. 
And  yet,  until  Papal  laws  are  read,  no  one  would  easily 
imagine  in  how  many  ways  it  has  been  so  used.  To 
get  light  on  this  point,  we  turn  to  Bishop  Kenrick's 


BISHOP  KENBICK'S  DEFENCE.  183 

statement  of  Papal  legislation.  By  examining  this  legis- 
lation, we  arrive  at  the  following  results.  The  state 
of  things  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  rendered  it 
necessary  to  specify  nineteen  different  ways  in  which  ad- 
vantage can  be  taken  of  the  system  of  the  confessional  as 
a  means  of  seduction,  and  to  declare  that  whoever  uses  it 
in  any  of  these  ways  is  to  be  reported  to  the  Inquisition 
by  the  female  solicited.  These  nineteen  cases  are  sub- 
divided and  classified  as  follows  :  — 

1.  Solicitation  during  the  act  of  confession,  five  cases. 

2.  Solicitation  before  the  act  of  confession,  two  cases. 

3.  Solicitation  immediately  after  confession,  three  cases. 

4.  Solicitation  to  which  confession  furnishes  an  occa- 
sion, four  cases. 

5.  Solicitation  under  the  pretext  of  confession,  two  cases. 

6.  Solicitation  in  the  confessional,  although  no   con- 
fession is  made,  one*  case. 

7.  Solicitation  in  any  other  place  besides  the  confes- 
sional, if  it  is  used  for  purposes  of  confession,  two  cases. 

Now,  who  can  even  read  over  this  general  statement  of 
the  topics  of  these  laws  and  not  receive  new  light  as  to 
the  extensive  applicability  of  the  confessional  for  purposes 
of  seduction  ?  It  can  be  used  before  confession,  during 
confession,  and  immediately  after  confession.  It  furnishes 
occasions  for  seduction  long  after  confession  is  over.  It 
furnishes  a  pretext  for  seduction  ;  it  furnishes  a  place  for 
it ;  and,  if  there  is  no  confessional,  a  place  can  be  chosen 
where  the  same  diabolical  purpose  can  be  prosecuted. 

By  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy  they  are  led  into  the 
highest  degree  of  temptation,  and  then  by  the  confessional 
there  is  offered  to  them  every  variety  of  excitement  and 
of  aid  to  prosecute  the  gratification  of  their  excited  de- 
sires. But,  if  we  descend  to  the  details  of  these  nineteen 
cases  as  given  by  Bishop  Kenrick,  we  shall  obtain  a  still 


184        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

more  vivid  conception  of  the  actual  use  of  the  system  for 
this  purpose. 

For  an  example,  I  will  take  the  second  specification  of 
the  fourth  general  division  —  i.  e.,  solicitation  to  which 
confession  furnishes  an  occasion.  This  is  the  case  of  one 
Qui,  ex  fragilitate  in  confessione  cognita,  sumit  occasianem, 
earn  tcntandi  —  "  Who,  from  any  frailty  discovered  in  con- 
fession, takes  an  occasion  afterwards  to  tempt  the  female 
who  has  confessed." 

How  clearly  does  this  specification  bring  the  wide- 
spread working  of  that  pernicious  system  before  the  mind  ! 
Here,  now,  is  an  unmarried  priest  surrounded  by  hundreds 
or  thousands  of  females.  They  have  their  frailties,  their 
impure  thoughts,  their  temptations,  it  may  be  their  lapses  ; 
but,  without  the  system  of  the  confessional,  no  man  could 
tell  what  they  are.  And,  if  a  licentious  or  tempted  un- 
married priest  wished  to  seduce  any  of  his  flock,  he  would 
have  no  guide  ;  and,  ignorant  and  fearful,  he  might  be  re- 
pelled from  the  attempt.  But  here  the  confessional  comes 
to  his  aid.  It  spreads  before  him  a  perfect  map  of  every 
female  heart  in  his  whole  flock,  for  they  are  to  disclose  to 
him  their  most  secret  thoughts  as  to  God  ;  for  in  hearing 
confession,  as  Dens  tells  us,  he  acts  as  God,  and  not  as 
man.  And  now  he  knows  the  weaknesses,  the  tempta- 
tions, the  frailties,  and  the  falls  of  every  one  ;  he  studies 
their  characters  ;  he  knows  how  to  approach  them  ;  and, 
wherever  afterwards  he  may  meet  them,  the  disclosures 
of  the  confessional  are  present  to  his  mind,  and  furnish 
him  with  innumerable  occasions  to  compass  his  end. 

Of  what  use  is  it,  now,  to  pass  a  law  that  he  who  avails 
himself  of  any  of  these  occasions  to  tempt  a  female  shall 
be  reported  by  that  female  to  the  Inquisition  ?  You  might 
as  well  pour  water  on  an  inclined  plane,  and  then  by  law 
forbid  it  to  run  down.  But  this  is  only  one  out  of  nine- 


BISHOP  KENRICK'S  DEFENCE.  185 

teen  specifications.  Let  us  look  at  another.  Take  the 
fourth  specification  under  the  same  division  ;  it  is  the  case 
of  one  Qui  aliquem  solicitat,  promittens  se  earn  confitentem, 
ddnceps  excepturum  —  "  Who  solicits  a  female  to  sin,  prom- 
ising that  he  will  afterwards  receive  her  to  make  confes- 
sion." What  power  of  temptation  in  the  system  does  this 
simple  statement  disclose !  It  not  only  gives  to  the  priest 
light  to  choose  his  victims,  but,  if  any  through  fear  of  the 
penalties  of  sin  refuse  to  comply  with  his  desires,  it  ena- 
bles him  to  say.  You  need  not  fear  the  consequences  ;  have 
I  not  the  power  to  remit  sins?  Comply  with  my  request, 
and  then  I  will  hear  you  confess  and  free  you  from  all 
guilt.  After  having  furnished  such  means  of  temptation 
and  delusion,  how  vain  the  hope  that  any  law  will  check 
their  use !  The  trial  in  Spain  to  execute  the  laws  clearly 
proved  that  the  system  produced  its  natural  results  and 
that  the  laws  were  of  no  avail.  Even  the  attempt  to 
execute  them  was  abandoned. 

Take  another  instance  from  the  first  division,  case  five  : 
Charta  ad  venerem  incitans,  seu  liter CB  amatorite,  in  tribunale 
traditce,  solicitationis,  instar  sunt  —  "Any  thing  written  on 
paper  adapted  to  excite  love,  or  a  love  letter,  delivered  in 
the  tribunal,  is  equivalent  to  solicitation  in  the  confession- 
al." This  principle  was  first  established  by  Alexander 
TIL,  in  1655,  in  opposition  to  a  contrary  doctrine.  This  is 
worthy  of  the  more  notice  as  tending  to  throw  light  on  the 
effects  of  the  confessional  on  the  morals  of  Romish  ecclesi- 
astics ;  for  it  appears  by  the  testimony  of  Bishop  Kenrick 
that  the  following  proposition  had  actually  been  maintained 
by  some  of  them  :  "A  confessor  who  in  the  sacrament  of 
confession  gives  the  penitent  a  letter  to  be  read  after- 
wards, iu  which  he  excites  her  to  love,  is  not  regarded  as 
having  solicited  her  in  confession,  and  therefore  is  not  to  be 
reported."  (See  vol.  iii.  Theologia  Moralis,  p.  236.)  This 
10  • 


186         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

proposition  Alexander  VII.  felt  himself  called  on  to  con- 
demn. To  what  a  state  of  degradation  must  the  system 
of  the  confessional  have  reduced  priestly  morals  when 
the  pontiff  was  obliged  to  condemn  such  a  proposition  as 
this !  and  how  clearly  it  shows  that,  although  many  speci- 
fications had  been  at  first  condemned  in  the  bull  of  Greg- 
ory XV.  in  1622,  yet,  before  1655,  the  priests  had  in- 
vented a  way  of  evading  them  all !  For  though  all  who 
solicited  females  in  confession  were  to  be  reported  to  the 
Inquisition,  yet  the  discovery  was  made  that  to  give  a  love 
letter  in  the  confessional,  to  be  read  after  confession,  was 
not  to  solicit  in  confession,  and  was  not  therefore  to  bo 
reported.  Admirable  sagacity !  wonderful  discrimina- 
tion !  "What  cobwebs  are  laws  against  the  momentum  of 
depraved  desires  1  By  this  subtle  distinction,  till  at  last 
the  pope  condemned  it,  the  whole  field  was  again  cleared 
for  the  unobstructed  prosecution  of  their  nefarious  designs. 

We  have  quoted  but  three  out  of  nineteen  cases.  If  we 
were  in  like  manner  to  specify  and  comment  on  the  whole 
nineteen,  each  in  its  turn  would  light  up  a  new  lamp  to 
expose  the  dark  recesses  of  this  dreary  region  of  pollu- 
tion, and  justify  the  divine  denunciation  of  the  whole 
system  as  Babylon  the  great,  the  mother  of  harlots  and 
abominations  of  the  earth. 

And  let  no  one  dare  to  call  this  Protestant  slander. 
Bishop  Kenrick,  the  volunteer  defender  of  the  confes- 
sional, and  the  popes,  his  lords  and  masters,  are  our  wit- 
nesses. 

Well  did  Professor  Smyth  remark  that,  "  whenever  the 
laws  of  a  nation  can  be  perused,  a  variety  of  conclusions 
can  be  drawn  from  them  which  the  laws  themselves  were 
never  intended  to  convey."  Neither  Pope  Gregory  XV.  by 
his  laws,  nor  Bishop  Kenrick  by  his  digest  and  exposition 
of  them,  intended  to  unfold  the  abominations  of  the  con- 


BISHOP  KENRICK'S  DEFENCE.  187 

fessional ;  yet  they  have  done  it  in  the  clearest  and  most 
ample  manner.  Well  does  Professor  Smyth  say  of  con- 
clusions thus  derived,  that  they  are  "  more  certain  and 
important  than  can  in  any  other  way  be  obtained." 

Let  us,  then,  proceed  in  our  examination  of  Bishop  Ken- 
rick  for  new  light  on  the  abominations  of  the  confessional. 
The  third  case  under  the  fourth  head  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  Qui  autem  pwUa  vel  voce,  vel  signo  aliquo,  peccati  in  con.- 
fessione  declarati  memoriam  refricaret,  dum  alias  earn  solidta- 
ret,  occasione  confessionis  solicitasse  merito  censerdur,  et  reus 
foret  proditi  sigilli  —  'Whoever  shall  remind  a  female, 
either  by  word  or  sign,  of  a  sin  which  she  has  revealed  in 
confession,  whilst  at  another  time  he  solicits  her,  is  justly 
considered  as  having  taken  an  occasion  to  solicit  from 
confession,  and  is  guilty  of  violating  the  seal  —  i.  e.,  of 
secrecy.' " 

Here,  now,  how  vividly  do  we  see  the  effects  of  the  con- 
fessional in  removing  all  those  natural  and  divinely  or- 
dained obstacles  to  impure  conversation  between  a  priest 
and  the  females  of  his  flock  which  are  the  safeguard  of 
social  purity !  If  the  natural  laws  of  female  modesty 
were  left  to  operate  in  full  force,  and  the  priest  had  no 
religious  pretext  for  introducing  sensual  ideas,  who  does 
not  see  what  powerful  obstacles  would  exist  to  the  intro- 
duction of  impure  conversation  ?  The  natural  modesty, 
both  of  the  female  mind  and  of  an  uncorrupted  priest, 
would  prevent. 

But  here  the  accursed  system  of  the  confessional  inter- 
poses, and,  under  a  pretence  of  religion,  introduces  a  reg- 
ular conversation  at  stated  intervals  between  the  priest 
and  every  female  of  his  flock  on  all  topics  involved  in 
the  violation  of  chastity,  in  thought,  word,  and  deed. 
Thus  the  subject  is  introduced  —  thus  it  is  kept  up  before 
the  mind.  There  is  not  a  female  with  whom  the  priest 


188        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

has  not  conversed  upon  it.  He  knows  the  depraved  de- 
sires, the  sinful  feelings,  the  corrupt  wishes,  the  unclean 
acts  of  all. 

And  now  the  fiery  oven  of  temptation  is  heated  and 
continually  burns  around  him.  His  own  passions  are 
aroused.  He  knows  how  to  wake  up  in  others  all  those 
trains  of  thought  that  lead  to  temptation  ;  he  knows  how 
to  appeal  to  the  consciousness  of  the  female  mind  by  signs 
recalling  the  disclosures  of  the  confessional.  And  now, 
forsooth,  what  is  to  stop  him  ?  "Why,  truly,  Bishop  Ken- 
rick  tells  us  that,  if  he  does,  it  is  the  female's  duty  to  re- 
port him  to  the  Inquisition,  or,  if  there  is  none  in  that 
part  of  the  world,  to  the  bishop,  and  most  severe  punish- 
ments shall  be  inflicted  on  him.  "We  shall  speak  of  this 
soon*  But  first  let  us  notice  another  case. 

It  is  a  case  of  solicitation  under  pretext  of  confession. 
Kenrick,  p.  237,  vol.  iii. :  "  Si  autem  Me  suggesserit  ei 
renuenti  obfarrue  periculum,  ut  eum  prcetextu  c&nfessi&nis  ac- 
cerseret,  denuntiandus  foret,  quippe  qui  revera  prcctextu  confes- 
sionis  solidtavit  — '  If  a  priest  suggests  to  a  female  re- 
fusing to  comply  with  his  desires,  on  account  of  exposing 
her  reputation  to  peril,  that  she  should  send  for  him  un- 
der a  pretext  of  desiring  to  confess  to  him,  he  is  to  be 
regarded  as  soliciting  under  pretext  of  confession.' " 
What  power  of  seduction  does  this  statement  develop  in 
the  system  !  what  facts  does  it  imply  ! 

Now,  compare  with  this  legislation  of  the  Romish  pon- 
tiff the  following  statements  from  a  French  priest  of  whom 
I  shall  soon  speak.  They  reveal  the  state  of  society 
which  the  legislation  implies  :  — 

"  There  are  no  means  which  their  cunning  does  not  in- 
vent to  meet  with  their  victims  If  the  husband  is  jeal- 
ous and  suspicious,  his  wife,  upon  the  advice  of  the  curate, 
will  feign  to  be  sick  ;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  a  priest  to 


BISHOP  KENEICK'S  DEFENCE.  189 

visit  often  (every  day  if  possible)  his  sick  parishioners. 
He  will  remain  alone  with  her,  to  speak  about  spiritual 
matters  in  appearance  or  to  confess  her." 

Take  anoth'er  case  from  the  same  author,  still  further 
illustrating  the  immense  power  of  seduction  given  by  the 
system  of  the  confessional  to  the  Romish  priesthood  :  — 

"By  this  way,  through  their  dark  ministry,  they  have 
an  immense  power  upon  the  minds  of  women  ;  for  they  at- 
tack only  those  whose  disposition  they  have  long  studied 
in  confession.  The  reader  can  have  some  just  idea  of 
this  power  from  this  single  fact,  of  which  I  know  the  per- 
sonage, because  it  became  public.  A  priest  in  a  parish  not 
far*from  mine  laid  his  snares  for  a  young  married  woman 
who  had  the  reputation  of  piety  because  she  attended 
mass  every  morning.  He,  through  his  diabolical  argu- 
ments, won  her  and  triumphed  over  all  her  scruples.  She 
went  to  him  almost  every  morning  in  the  vestry  before 
the  bell  rung  to  call  the  people  to  the  mass.  He  then 
confessed  and  absolved  her,  and  she  received  the  Lord's 
supper  at  his  mass.  The  good  people  said,  admiring  her 
daily  communion,  '  How  pious  is  this  young  wife  !  She 
partakes  of  the  sacrament  every  day  ;  she  is  doubtless  a 
saint.' " 

Now,  it  is  in  vain  to  reply  to  such  facts  that  all  systems 
are  liable  to  abus6  ;  for  the  system  of  the  celibacy  of 
the  clergy  and  of  the  confessional,  taken  together,  is  as 
exactly  fitted  to  produce  such  results  as  if  it  was 
framed  for  it.  What  mockery,  then,  to  pretend  to  check 
its  operation  by  requiring  females  to  report  to  the  Inqui- 
sition those  priests  who  solicit  them,  and  denouncing  se- 
vere punishments  on  the  guilty  solicitors  I  All  such  legis- 
lation will  ever  be  in  practice  a  dead  letter.  The  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  its  execution  are  insurmountable. 
Notice  a  few  facts. 

No  priest  can  be  convicted  and  punished  on  the  testi- 


190        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

/ 

mony  of  one  witness.  Listen  to  Bishop  Kenrick  :  "  JVemo 
damnandus  est  gravissimis  ittis  pcenis  ob  unius  denunciationem 
— '  No  one  is  to  be  condemned  to  those  most  severe  pun- 
ishments on  the  accusation  of  one  -witness.'  "  Does  the 
female  run  no  risk  if  she  fails  of  proving  her  charge  ? 

Hear  the  bishop  again  :  "  Calumniam  autem  impactam 
sacerdotibus  innoxiis  ulcisci  voluit  —  'It  is  the  pleasure 
of  the  pope  that  false  charges  against  innocent  priests 
shall  subject  the  accuser  to  deserved  retribution.'  " 

How  easy,  then,  is  it  for  a  wily  priest  so  to  conduct  his 
solicitations  that  no  single  female  shall  ever  dare  to 
make  the  charge !  and  how  unequal  the  conflict  between 
a  defenceless  female  and  a  crafty  priest  in  a  case  where 
every  instinct  of  self-preservation  calls  on  him  to  destroy 
her  character  in  order  to  save  his  own  ! 

But  suppose  the  facts  so  notorious  that  witnesses 
enough  could  be  produced  to  prove  the  charges  ;  will  the 
laws  be  executed  then?  Ask  Seville.  "When  the  terrors 
of  the  Inquisition  were  put  forth  to  compel  females  to 
speak  the  truth,  the  fair  informers,  according  to  Gonsal- 
vus,  were  so  numerous  that  all  the  inquisitors  and  twenty 
notaries  were  insufficient  in  thirty  days  to  take  their 
depositions.  Thirty  additional  days  were  needed  three 
times  in  succession.  Finally  the  multitude  of  criminals, 
the  jealousy  of  husbands,  the  odium  fast  coming  on  auric- 
ular confession  and  the  Popish  priesthood  caused  the  In- 
quisition to  quash  the  prosecution  and  to  consign  tho 
depositions  to  oblivion. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


TESTIMONY  OF  CATHOLIC  PRIESTS. 

WE  have  taken  some  notice  of  the  efforts  of  Bishop 
Kenrick  to  gloss  over  the  abominations  of  the  system  of 
auricular  confession  to  an  unmarried  priesthood.  All  the 
laws  of  cause  and  effect  must  be  abolished  if  such  a  sys- 
tem does  not  produce  deep  moral  corruption.  The  attempt 
in  Spain,  through  the  Inquisition,  to  stop  seduction  through 
the  confessional  failed  simply  because  the  number  of  ec- 
clesiastics involved  was  so  great  that  to  proceed  involved 
the  ruin  of  the  clergy.  The  facts  have  been  given  in  a 
preceding  chapter  ;  and  to  it  we  refer  our  readers.  We 
have  also  produced  some  astounding  evidence  to  the  same 
effect  from  Bishop  Kenrick  himself.  To  this  we  will  add 
the  testimony  of  a  French  priest  fully  and  practically  ac- 
quainted with  the  system,  for  whose  character  and  integ- 
rity Professor  Morse,  of  New  York,  is  voucher,  under 
whose  sanction  the  statements  were  published.  Of  him 
he  says, — 

"  The  question  will  naturally  be  asked,  '  Why  does  the 
author  conceal  his  name  ? '  Reasons  of  prudence  in  con- 
sulting the  safety  of  dear  relatives,  all  Catholics  in  the 
south  part  of  France,  where  they  are  surrounded  by  a 
bigoted,  enslaved,  and  most  vindictive  Roman  Catholic 
population,  (as  any  one  acquainted  with  the  state  of  that 
part  of  France  well  knows,)  oblige  the  considerate  and 
truly  amiable  author  to  preserve  for  the  present  a  strict 

(191) 


192        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

incognito.  His  friends  would  suffer  on  his  account  the 
most  painful  proscription.  Little  do  we  conceive  the  dan- 
gers and  trials,  the  hate  and  persecutions,  which  in  our 
own  times  await  not  merely  the  convert  himself  from  Po- 
pery in  countries  where  it  is  dominant,  but  which  pursue 
even  the  innocent  relatives  of  the  apostate  heretic  as  he  is 
called,  although  they  remain  stanch  in  their  attachment 
to  their  sect.  Would  they  who  inconsiderately  affirm  that 
Popery  has  changed  its  persecuting  character  in  modern 
times  but  give  a  moderate  share  of  attention  in  ascertain- 
ing the  facts  which  are  every  day  occurring  to  prove  its 
true  spirit,  they  would  no  longer  be  deceived,  but  watch 
with  the  greater  jealous}' all  the  movements  and  encroach- 
ments of  this  necessarily  intolerant  sect. 

"  The  public  may  rest  assured  that  the  author  is  what 
he  professes  to  be.  He  is  no  fictitious  character.  He  is 
personally  known,  not  alone  to  me,  but  to  several  gentle- 
men whose  names  and  standing  are  well  known  to  the 
community.  His  testimonials  which  he  showed  me  are  of 
the  highest  character  ;  and  he  was,  when  in  France,  under 
the  patronage  of  a  French  nobleman  distinguished  for  his 
liberality  and  philanthropy,  whose  name  is  associated  in 
Paris  with  plans  of  the  most  enlarged  benevolence,  whose 
time  and  immense  wealth  are  freely  employed  in  the  en- 
couragement of  industry,  religion,  and  literature  among 
the  French  people,  but  whose  name,  for  reasons  obvious 
to  all,  cannot  now  be  given  to  the  public." 

His  statements  are  a  striking  commentary  on  the  great 
development  in  Spain.  There  is  in  them  an  inherent  veri- 
similitude. They  reveal  the  course  of  events  that  dis- 
closed itself  in  those  notorious  results.  The  Catholic 
priest  says  of  himself,  also,  that  he  fell  in  love  with  one 
of  his  flock,  but  concealed  his  passion,  and  after  his  con- 
version fled  to  this  country.  We  give  his  statement :  — 

"  It  is  not  my  intention  to  repeat  here  all  the  accusa- 
tions so  justly  made  against  Catholic  priests,  -but  only  to 
reveal,  to  publish  in  the  light,  perhaps  for  the  first  time, 
how  they  defraud  the  poor  deluded  people  who  trust  to 


TESTIMONY   OP   CATHOLIC   PRIESTS.  193 

ihem.  I  am  bold  to  say  aloud,  that  Protestants  have  noth- 
ing yet  upon  this  important  matter  so  precise  as  what  I  am 
about  to  say.  I  have  confessed  priests  and  laymen  of 
every  description,  a  bishop  (once,)  superiors,  curates,  per- 
sons high  and  low,  women,  girls,  boys.  I  am  therefore 
fitted  to  speak  of  the  confessional. 

"  The  confession  of  men  is  a  matter  of  high  importance 
in  political  matters,  to  impress  their  minds  with  slavish 
ideas  ;  but,  not  to  repeat  what  I  have  already  stated  on 
this  subject  in  my  discourse,  I  refer  the  reader  to  it.  As. 
for  other  matters,  confessors  endeavor  to  give  a  high  opin- 
ion of  their  own  holiness  to  fathers  and  husbands,  that 
they  may  be  induced  to  send  to  the  confessional,  without 
any  fear,  their  wives  and  daughters  ;  because,  doubtless, 
should  fathers  and  husbands  know  what  passes  at  the  con- 
fession box  between  the  holy  man  and  their  wives  and 
daughters,  they  never  would  permit  them  again  to  go  to 
those  schools  of  vice.  But  priests  command  most  careful- 
ly to  women  never  to  speak  of  their  confession  to  men, 
and  they  inquire  severally  about  that  in  every  confession. 

"  The  confession  of  the  female  sex  is  the  great  triumph, 
the  most  splendid  theatre,  of  priests.  Here  is  completed 
the  work  which  is  but  begun  through  all  their  intercourse 
with  women. ;  for  all  our  relations  with  them  begin  from 
their  birth  and  continue  till  their  death.  In  their  baptism 
we  sprinkle  their  heads  with  holy  water,  at  their  death  their 
grave  ;  and  the  space  comprised  between  those  two  epochs 
is  filled  by  a  thousand  ecclesiastical  duties.  The  more  I 
think  of  this  matter,  the  more  I  remember  this  sentence  : 
'  Priests,  in  taking  the  vows  of  renouncing  marriage,  en- 
gage themselves  to  take  the  wives  of  others.' 

"  So  soon  as  the  first  light  of  reason  has  appeared  in 
their  tender  minds,  we  have  girls  at  our  confessional ;  and 
here,  with  all  the  resources  of  cunning  and  lessons  of  the- 
ology, we  sow  the  seeds  of  our  future  power  in  their  hearts, 
the  foundation  of  our  future  designs.  Those  young  girls 
from  seven  years  of  age  come  and  kneel  with  all  the  inno- 
cence, the  purity,  the  inexperience  of  childhood,  beautiful 
as  the  lilies  of  the  valley  of  which  our  Savior  speaks  in  the 
gospel ;  they  come,  sent  by  their  mothers,  by  the  orders  of 
the  priest,  who  watches  his  prey  with  eager  eyes  ;  they 
17 


194         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

come  with  all  the  fear  and  respect  of  their  age  for  the  man 
of  God.  He,  seeing  in  them  the  future  tool  of  his  passions, 
fills  their  minds  with  prejudices,  repeats  to  them  that  he  is 
the  minister  of  Heaven,  that  they  must  look  to  him,  revere 
him,  almost  worship  him  as  a  god  ;  he  accustoms  their 
mind  to  obey  him  absolutely  and  blindly,  to  believe  hitn 
infallible  —  in  short,  a  divine  oracle.  Thus  he  gives  to 
their  thoughts  the  direction  he  pleases ;  he  prepares  his 
batteries  ;  he  informs  them  upon  subjects  which  they  ought 
never  to  know.  At  first  they  do  not  understand  those  les- 
sons at  so  early  an  age  ;  but  by  and  by  they  bear  their  fruit 
when  developed  by  time.  Thus  confessors  instruct  those 
girls  from  seven,  or  even  six,  years  of  age  ;  for  the  youngest 
are  the  best.  At  ten  years  old  they  come  to  the  catechism. 
In  those  long  instructions  he  explains  diffusely,  three  or 
four  times  a  week,  the  vileness  and  filthiness  in  that  shame- 
ful book,  which  they  learn  by  heart.  As  a  preparation  to 
the  Lord's  supper  at  the  end  of  their  year  of  catechism, 
he  confesses  them  much  oftener  than  usual ;  they  make  a 
general  review  of  their  whole  life.  When  he  gives  them 
the  absolution  which  purifies  their  conscience  and  recon- 
ciles them  to  God  he  reveals  to  their  mind  what  they  owe 
to  their  confessor  for  such  a  favor.  In  the  afternoon  of 
this  same  day,  at  one  of  the  most  gorgeous  ceremonies  of 
the  Catholic  church,  the  general  communion  of  boys,  the 
confessor,  at  the  renovation  of  the  vows  of  baptism,  strict- 
ly commands  them  not  to  neglect  the  holy  confession,  for 
if  they  do  they  will  be  lost.  Thus  young  girls,  well  in- 
doctrinated and  bound  to  their  confessor,  are  not  heedless 
enough  to  abandon  his  orders ;  they  come  again  to  the 
confessional,  through  custom  and  habit,  with  the  same  sim- 
plicity, and  entertaining  the  same  respect  and  fear  of  their 
spiritual  father,  as  in  their  childhood  ;  they  kneel  many 
times  in  the  vestry,  without  the  confessional,  before  a  man 
inflamed  with  passions  —  a  man,  perhaps,  who  has  for  a  long 
time  fought  against  himself,  and  who  yet  bears  evil  in  his 
heart ;  before  a  man,  perhaps,  who  has  long  since  prepared 
his  work,  and  now  is  ready  to  profit  by  it ;  before  a  man 
honest  and  pure,  perhaps,  at  first,  but  who,  being  a  man,  a 
son  of  Adam,  may  not  be  able  to  resist  the  temptation. 
And  I  ask,  Is  it  possible,  humanly  speaking,  for  him,  a 


TESTIMONY  OP   CATHOLIC  PEIESTS.  195 

priest,  to  remain  pure,  when  at  twenty-five  or  thirty  years 
of  age  he  is  shut  either  in  the  vestry  or  in  the  confessional 
with  a  young  woman  who  reveals  to  him  the  secrets  of  her 
heart  as  she  knows  them  herself,  according  to  our  rules,  so 
that  he,  the  spiritual  physician,  may  be  able  to  see  and  to 
judge  —  with  a  woman  who,  being  herself  human,  and  not 
an  angel,  speaks  for  hours  to  a  young  priest  of  her  temp- 
tations, her  passions,  her  secret  thoughts,  &c.,  and  convers- 
ing of  matters  which  I  cannot  reveal  here,  —  I  say,  is  it 
possible  for  human  virtue  to  keep  itself  pure,  not  only  for 
a  day,  a  week,  a  month,  but  during  years  and  for  the  whole 
life? 

"  Let  not  a  Catholic  say  to  me  that  these  are  the  reason- 
ings of  a  corrupt  man,  of  a  bad  priest ;  let  him  not  say  that 
God  can  do  what  man  cannot,  and  other  similar  reasons 
which,  /  know  it  well,  priests  always  give  to  explain  their 
pretended  virtue.  Those  reasons  a  common  Catholic  may 
be  satisfied  with  ;  but  I,  a  priest,  cannot  be.  No  ;  I  can- 
not ;  I  know  too  well  the  matter  ;  and  I  answer,  first,  that 
I  was  no  more  inclined  to  evil,  nor  more  liable  to  yield  to 
temptation,  than  others ;  (for  God  knows  that  I  never  se- 
duced any  one  through  my  ministry.)  I  was  only  a  man 
like  others,  designed  by  the  Creator  for  connubial  happi- 
ness according  to  his  word  itself:  'It  is  not  good  for  man 
to  be  alone  ;  I  will  make  a  helpmeet  for  him  ; '  designed,  I 
say,  for  a  union  intended  by  the  all-wise  and  benevolent 
Creator.  Can  the  laws  of  Popery  prevail  over  the  wis- 
dom of  the  Almighty  ?  Let  not  a  Catholic  say  that  a 
priest  in  this  situation  is  helped  by  the  special  grace  of 
God  ;  for  I  answer,  by  the  words  of  Christ  himself,  '  Who- 
soever loves  danger,  he  shall  perish  in  it.'  And  if  God 
has  promised  his  grace,  it  is  not  granted  in  an  unnatural, 
immoral  situation,  directly  against  his  institution. 

"  As  soon  as  the  young  girl,  for  I  speak  peculiarly  of 
their  confession,  enters  the  confessional,  '  Bless  me,  father/ 
she  says,  kneeling  and  crossing  herself,  '  for  I  have  sinned  ; ' 
and  the  priest  mumbles,  Dominus  sit  in  ore  tuo  et  in  corde, 
tuo  ut  conjitearis  omnia  peccata  tua  —  'The  Lord  be  in  your 
heart  and  lips,  that  you  may  confess  all  your  sins.'  If  she 
is  an  ugly,  common  country  girl  or  woman  she  is  soon  de- 
spatched ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  if  she  is  pretty  and  fair, 


196         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  holy  father  puts  himself  at  ease  ;  he  examines  her  in  the 
most  secret  recesses  of  her  soul ;  he  unfolds  her  mind  in 
every  sense,  in  every  manner,  upon  every  matter.  This  is 
the  way  which  theology  recommends  us  to  follow  in  our 
interrogations:  ' Daughter,  have  you  had  bad  thoughts?' 
'  On  what  subject  ?  How  often  ? '  &c.  '  Have  you  had  bad 
desires  ?  What  desires  ? '  '  Have  you  committed  bad  ac- 
tions? With  whom  ?  What  actions?'  &c.  I  am  obliged 
to  stop.  Many  times  the  poor  ashamed  girl  does  not  dare 
answer  the  questions,  they  are  so  indecent.  In  that  case 
the  holy  man,  ceasing  his  interrogations,  says  to  her,  '  Lis- 
ten, daughter,  to  the  true  doctrine  of  the  church  ;  you  must 
confess  the  truth,  all  the  truth,  to  your  spiritual  father. 
Do  you'  know  that  I  am  in  the  place  of  God  —  that  you 
cannot  deceive  him?  Speak,  then  ;  reveal  your  heart  to 
me  as  God  knows  it ;  you  will  be  very  glad  when  you  will 
have  discharged  this  burden  from  your  rnind.  Will  you 
not  ? '  '  Yes.'  '  Begin  ;  I  will  help  you  ; '  and  then  begins 
such  a  diabolical  explanation  as  is  not  to  be  found  but  in 
houses  of  infamy,  I  suppose,  or  in  our  theological  books. 
This  is  so  well  known  that  I  have  often  heard  of  wicked 
young  men  saying  to  each  other,  '  Come,  let  us  go  to  con- 
fession, and  the  curate  will  teach  us  a  great  many  corrupt 
things  which  we  never  knew  ; '  and  many  young  girls  have 
told  me  in  confession,  that,  in  order  to  become  acquainted 
with  details  on  those  matters  pleasing  to  their  corrupt  na- 
ture, they  went  purposely  to  the  confessional  to  speak  about 
it  to  their  spiritual  father.  Sometimes  I  have  heard  the 
confession  of  young  girls  not  above  sixteen  years  of  age, 
who  explained  to  me  such  disgusting  things  with  a  pre- 
cision, a  propriety  (or  rather  impropriety)  of  terms,  that, 
when  I  asked  them  where  they  had  gathered  all  this 
strange  learning,  they  seemed  as  much  astonished  at  my 
question  as  I  was  at  their  confession,  and  said  to  me, 
'  Why,  father,  our  former  confessor  taught  us  all  this,  and 
commanded  us  never  to  omit  these  details,  otherwise  we 
should  be  damned.'  I  replied  to  them,  '  I  pray  you  never 
use  such  terms  again ;  they  are  unworthy  of  a  Christian 
mouth  ;  you  have  misunderstood  your  confessor.'  I  learned 
afterwards  that  these  misguided  persons  left  my  confes- 
sional because,  they  said,  I  was  an  ignorant  confessor, 


TESTIMONY   OF    CATHOLIC   PRIESTS.  '197 

who  did  not  confess  like  others,  and  who  did  not  cause  them  to 
say  all. 

"After  so  many  instructions  the  young  girl  is  well  in- 
doctrinated, well  fitted  to  answer  either  the  questions  or 
the  purposes  of  the  priest.  This  poison  diffused  in  her 
heart  soon  infects  her  whole  mind  and  destroys  her  purity. 
It  is  precisely  at  such  a  point  of  time  that  her  cruel  foe 
waits  for  her.  When  he  sees  that  she  is  made  vicious  and 
corrupt  by  the  teachings  of  the  confessional  he  is  sure  of 
his  success." 

To  this  statement  Professor  Morse  adds  the  following 
remarks  :  — 

"  The  modes  by  which  the  priest  persuades  his  victim 
that  she  is  without  sin  in  doing  whatever  he  commands, 
since  he  is  responsible,  and  since  he  can  absolve  her  from 
it,  and  other  means  of  deceiving  at  the  confessional,  are 
then  too  graphically  related  to  be  publicly  told  ;  and  I 
have  thought  it  best,  with  the  consent  of  the  author,  to 
suppress  all  but  the  closing  facts." 

Now,  let  it  be  considered  that  I  have  shown  that  from 
Bishop  Kenrick  himself  evidence  can  be  derived  going  to 
confirm  and  substantiate  all  the  statements  of  this  French 
priest.  If  these  things  are  so,  then  it  becomes  Americans 
to  look  well  to  this  matter. 

Let  no  one  trust  the  efficacy  of  Papal  prohibitory  laws. 
The  whole  system  scatters  broadcast  the  seeds  of  the 
highest  temptation  known  to  man  in  the  minds  of  the 
whole  priesthood,  and  then  waters  those  seeds  day  and 
night ;  and  then,  as  if  in  solemn  mockery,  or  in  bitter  de- 
rision of  the  interests  of  the  human  race,  the  pope  issues 
his  bull  and  forbids  them  to  spring  up  and  grow. 

If  the  human  mind  had  not  been  debased,  brutalized,  and 

crushed  by  the  system,  it  would  be  incredible  that  it  could 

have  been  endured  from  generation  to  generation.     If  the 

whole  skill  of  earth  and  hell  had  been  put  forth  to  devise 

17* 


198       THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

a  system  designed  first  to  corrupt  the  clergy,  and  then, 
through  them,  human  society,  a  better  devised  and  more 
effectual  one  could  not  have  been  found.  Hence  a  con- 
verted French  priest  has  well  said,  "  This  intercourse  of 
young  girls  and  young  unmarried  priests  is  the  fulness  of 
immorality."  And  the  following  account  which  he  gives 
of  the  corruption  of  the  French  clergy  is  no  less  philo- 
sophical than  true.  It  also  exactly  agrees  with  the  state- 
ments of  Blanco  White. 

"  Catholic  or  Protestant  writers  who  have  spoken  of  the 
corruption  of  the  Roman  clergy,  who  have  described  its 
matchless  wickedness,  have  not  shown  its  cause.  They 
saw  only  the  effect,  without  tracing  it  up  to  its  source.  I 
will  try  to  supply  their  silence.  I  have  read  a  certain 
number  of  those  books  against  a  body  to  which  I  be- 
longed,—  a  body  which  I  know  as  well  as  it  is  possible 
for  one  to  know  it,  —  and  I  can  say  that  its  whole  degra- 
dation is  unknown.  Careful  of  saying  nothing  that  can 
shock  the  reader,  I  will  reveal  only  what  is  necessary  to 
unveil  those  '  anointed  of  the  Lord,'  but  nothing  to  offend 
the  eyes.  I  shall  surprise  Protestants,  doubtless,  by  say- 
ing that,  in  France,  the  immense  majority  of  young  men  in 
our  seminaries  are  not  corrupted,  and  many  of  them  are  vir- 
tuous. It  is  nevertheless  true.  They  are  ignorant,  super- 
stitious, fanatical,  given  up  to  their  superstitious  practices, 
to  theology,  &c.,  but,  I  declare  it,  not  at  all  vicious.  That 
may  be  conceded,  although  in  appearance  in  contradiction 
to  their  indecent  studies ;  for  they  are  taught  that  it  is 
necessary  to  learn  all  these  in  order  to  be  able  to  fulfil 
their  duty  ;  and,  to  hear  confession  in  all  its  extent,  it  is 
necessary  to  know  all  human  perversity.  I  do  not  give  a 
judgment  on  these  reasons  ;  be  that  as  it  may,  our  superiors 
endeavor  to  inspire  us,  in  those  recitations,  with  a  great  dis- 
like of  such  crimes  ;  and  I  can  affirm  that  it  is  very  pain- 
ful to  the  natural  sense  of  decency  in  any  man  to  be 
obliged,  as  we  are,  to  be  familiar  with  such  books. 

"  This  is  the  true  picture  upon  this  matter  of  the  semi- 
naries—  that  I  know;  and  I  am  indifferent  whether  it 
agrees  or  not  with  pictures  drawn  by  others. 


TESTIMONY   OF    CATHOLIC    PRIESTS.  199 

"  The  story  of  the  corruption  of  the  clergy  begins  only 
when  they  are  out  of  the  seminary.  Those  young  men  are 
sent  into  a  parish  in  the  quality  of  curates,  or  vicars.  In 
the  beginning  they  fulfil  their  duties  with  great  care,  and 
for  some  time  remain  faithful  to  their  vows.  Many  told 
this  to  me  after  their  fall ;  and  I  have  seen  it  myself,  ex- 
cept in  a  few  exceptions.  But  by  and  by  they  open  as- 
tonished eyes.  Restored  to  freedom,  after  ten  or  twelve 
years  of  thraldom  in  a  college,  or  seminary,  they  become 
quite  diiferent  men  :  gradually  they  forget  their  vow. 
'  O,'  said  a  young  priest  to  me,  with  tears  in  his  eyes,  after 
having  four  or  five  years  discharged  the  duties  of  his  sta- 
tion, '  God  only  knows  what  I  have  suffered  during  this 
time  !  and  if  I  have  fallen,  it  is  not  without  fighting.  Had 
I  been  allowed  to  choose  a  wife —  as  it  is  the  law  of  God, 
who  destines  man  to  marriage,  whatever  our  rules  teach 
to  the  contrary  —  I  should  have  remained  virtuous  ;  I 
should  have  been  the  happiest  man  in  the  world  ;  I  should 

be  a  good,  a  holy  priest ;  while  now  I  am 0, 1  am 

ashamed  of  myself!' 

•"  This  is  really  the  sad  history  of  all  their  falls  ;  for,  let 
us  be  just,  what  can  become  of  a  young  priest  of  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  confined  in  .the  lonely  wilderness  of  a 
country  parish,  in  a  village  where  he  has  only  the  society 
of  his  sacristan  and  of  his  servant,  because  all  his  parish- 
ioners being  but  coarse  peasants,  especially  in  the  south  and 
in  the  west,  where  scarcely  any  know  how  to  read,  are  un- 
able to  afford  any  comfort  to  his  solitude  ?  His  duty  oc- 
cupies him  but  little  save  on  the  Sunday  ;  and  during  the 
whole  week,  after  his  short  mass  and  some  confession  of 
women,  he  is  reduced  to  ask  himself,  '  What  shall  I  do?' 
Study  has  few,  if  any,  charms  for  him,  because  he  is  forbid- 
den to  read  or  study  precisely  those  matters  which  enter- 
tain the  intellect.  He  is  allowed  only  to  peruse  theology 
—  always  Dens,  Gomez,  Rodriguez,  the  Life  of  Saints,  by 
Godescar.  If  he  should  obtain  some  other  books,  the 
bishop,  in  his  episcopal  visit,  would  chide  him  severely, 
and  call  him  a  worldly  priest.  Our  great  poet  Racine, 
so  pure,  so  chaste,  is  scarcely  tolerated,  and  many  bishops 
do  not  allow  him  in  the  libraries  of  their  priests.  The 
young  man,  before  his  profession,  had  imagined  and  antici- 


200         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

pated  a  pleasant  existence  in  the  ecclesiastical  state,  and 
he  finds  but  privations,  ennui,  disgust.  His  passions  are 
also  raised  ;  the  demon  of  bad  thoughts  takes  possession 
of  him.  Moreover,  his  ministry  puts  him  in  so  many  cir- 
cumstances with  ignorant  young  countrywomen,  into  whose 
most  secret  thoughts  he  is  obliged  to  enter,  that  his  virtue 
receives  many  shocks.  And  can  it  be  otherwise  when  a 
man  has  those  intimate  and  continual  relations  required 
of  the  Catholic  priest  with  women  ?  No  ;  it  would  be 
unreasonable,  to  expect  from  human  nature  more  than  it  is 
able  to  do,  to  put  it  on  too  difficult  a  trial.  Such  is,  how- 
ever, the  situation  of  every  Catholic  priest. 

"  I  do  not  say  all  this  to  veil  or  excuse  the  crimes,  the 
natural  result  of  this  institution  ;  but  I  think  I  am  bound 
to  give  the  matter  of  fact  as  it  is.  Sometimes  the  resist- 
ance is  firm,  the  struggle  long  ;  but  at  length  this  martyr 
of  fanaticism,  this  victim  of  his  system  and  of  his  superi- 
ors, abandons  his  vow  through  despair,  shuts  his  eyes,  and 
throws  himself  into  the  slough  of  passions.  This  is  the  end 
of  almost  all  priests.  In  the  beginning  their  consciences 
reproach  them  bitterly ;  they  try  again  to  be  faithful ;  they 
flutter,  fall,  reform  again,  go  on,  fall  again,  and  at  length,  to 
finish  this  horrible  struggle,  remain  in  vice.  Let  us  add 
to  this  sad  catalogue  the  temptations  against  their  faith 
and  doctrines,  which  end  with  many  in  complete  atheism, 
into  which  they  fall  by  the  excess  of  degradation,  temp- 
tations to  atheism  in  those  who  reason,  from  the  impossi- 
bility of  reconciling  their  faith  with  reason." 

I 

What  language  of  detestation  can  be  found  sufficiently 
strong  for  such  a  system  ?  And  yet  of  this  system  has 
Bishop  Kenrick  come  forward  as  the  advocate. 


BLANCO  WHITE. 

In  perfect  accordance  with  this  testimony  of  the  French 
priest  is  that  of  Blanco  White,  once  an  eminent  ecclesiastic 
in  the  Spanish  church.  He  clearly  proves  that  there  had 


TESTIMONY   OF    CATHOLIC   PRIESTS.  201 

been  there  no  improvement  since  the  disclosures  of  the 
century  after  the  reformation.    He  says,  — 

"  I  cannot  think  of  the  wanderings  of  the  friends  of  my 
youth  without  heartrending  pain.  One  now  no  more, 
whose  talents  raised  him  to  one  of  the  highest  dignities 
of  the  church  of  Spain,  was  for  many  years  a  model  of 
Christian  purity.  When,  by  the  powerful  influence  of  his 
mind  and  the  warmth  of  his  devotion,  this  man  had  drawn 
many  into  the  clerical  and  the  religious  life,  (my  youngest 
sister  among  the  latter,)  he  sunk  at  once  into  the  grossest 
and  most  daring  profligacy.  I  heard  him  boast  that  the 
night  before  the  solemn  procession  of  Corpus  Christi, 
where  he  appeared  nearly  at  the  head  of  his  chapter,  one 
of  two  children  had  been  born,  which  his  two  concubines 
brought  to  light  within  a  few  days  of  each  other.  Such, 
more  or  less,  has  been  the  fate  of  my  early  friends,  whose 
minds  and  hearts  were  much  above  the  common  standard 
of  the  Spanish  clergy.  What,  then,  need  I  say  of  the  vul- 
gar crowd  of  priests,  who,  coming,  as  the  Spanish  phrase 
has  it,  from  coarse  swaddling  clothes,  and  raised  by  ordina- 
tion to  a  rank  of  life  for  which  they  have  not  been  pre- 
pared, mingle  vice  and  superstition,  grossness  of  feeling 
and  pride  of  office,  in  their  character  ?  I  have  known  the 
best  among  them  ;  I  have  heard  their  confessions  ;  I  have 
heard  the  confessions  of  young  persons  of  both  sexes  who 
fell  under  the  influence  of  their  suggestions  and  example  ; 
and  1  do  declare  that  nothing  can  be  more  dangerous  to 
youthful  virtue  than  their  company.  I  have  seen  the  most 
promising  men  of  my  university  obtain  country  vicarages 
with  characters  unimpeached  and  hearts  overflowing  with 
hopes  of  usefulness.  A  virtuous  wife  would  have  confirmed 
and  strengthened  their  purposes  ;  but  they  were  to  live  a 
life  of  angels  in  celibacy.  They  were,  however,  men,  and 
their  duties  connected  them  with  beings  of  no  higher  de- 
scription. Young  women  knelt  before  them  in  all  the 
intimacy  and  openness  of  confession.  A  solitary  home 
made  them  go  abroad  in  search  of  social  converse.  Love, 
long  resisted,  seized  them  at  length  like  madness.  Two 
I  knew  who  died  insane.  Hundreds  might  be  found  who 
avoid  that  fate  by  a  life  of  seftled  systematic  vice." 


202  THE   PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 


CRUELTY    OF   ROMANISM. 

Nowhere  does  the  cruelty  of  Romanism  appear  so  in- 
tense as  in  the  case  of  the  noblest  and  most  sincere  minds 
of  men  and  women  who  are  drawn  into  the  priesthood  or 
into  nunneries  with  the  false  idea  that  they  are  to  find 
themselves  surrounded  by  holy  influences.  How  bitter 
their  disappointment !  Some  long  resist  temptation  by  a 
kind  of  living  martyrdom  ;  and  of  these  some  become  in- 
sane. The  fate  of  many  a  poor  deceived  nun  will  never  be 
known  in  all  its  horrors  till  the  revelations  of  the  judg- 
ment day.  Whatever  screams  are  heard,  from  whatever 
cause,  as  was  the  case  in  the  nunnery  at  Baltimore,  no 
Protestant  can  enter.  And,  if  any  victim  escapes,  she  is, 
of  course,  slandered  and  declared  insane. 

Few  priests  have  the  nobility  and  strength  of  character 
of  the  French  priest.  His  experience  was  this,  as  given 
by  himself :  — 

"  An  assiduous  reading  of  pious  books,  of  the  Holy  Bible, 
were  of  great  use  to  me  in  confession,  and  gave  me  the 
reputation  of  an  able  confessor.  Soon,  notwithstanding, 
or  I  ought  rather  to  say  because  of  my  youth,  I  became 
a  la  mode  —  all  the  fashion  —  among  devotees.  In  France 
there  is  a  'mode,'  or  fashion,  for  every  thing,  for  confess- 
ors as  well  as  for  coats  or  hats.  My  downcast  eyes,  my 
timidity  and  piety  in  saying  mass,  obtained  for  me  the 
reputation  of  a  pious  priest.  Consequently  many  people 
came  to  hear  my  sermons  —  applied  to  me  for  my  advice  in 
confession  or  my  prayers  in  the  mass.  I  was  well  nigh 
believing  myself  a  powerful  saint,  a  heavenly  being. 
Alas  !  alas  !  I  was  to  be  recalled  from  this  height  to  which 
my  pride  had  raised  me,  to  my  native  earth. 

"  My  heart,  in  spite  of  my  whole  pretended  holiness,  was 
like  mountains  covered  with  enormous  heaps  of  snow, 
where  a  single  breath  is  often  sufficient  to  bring  down  the 
terrible  avalanche. 


TESTIMONY   OF    CATHOLIC    PRIESTS.  203 

"  One  day  a  young  lady  came  to  the  vestry  and  asked  me 
if  I  would  confess  her.  T  complied  with  her  request. 
I  confessed  her  often  ;  for  she  was  pious,  and  received  the 
Lord's  supper  at  least  twice  a  week.  She  told  me  the 
reason  why  she  had  changed  her  former  confessor  —  a 
reason  which  it  is  not  necessary  here  to  tell.  In  the  in- 
timate relation  of  confessor  and  penitent,  in  those  repeated 
conversations  in  which  a  young  female  of  nineteen  opens 
her  heart  every  week,  in  every  matter  and  the  most  secret 
thoughts,  to  a  young  man  of  twenty-seven  who  feels  and 
laments  his  loneliness,  it  was  not  difficult  to  foresee  what 
would  naturally  happen.  She  spoke  to  me  so  openly,  so 
candidly,  her  confession  displayed  so  fair  a  character, 
such  artlessness,  so  much  innocence,  that  by  and  by,  with- 
out any  intention  or  reflection,  but  by  a  natural  course  of 
things,  my  heart  was  caught,  and  I  fell  in  love  with  her. 
I  took  heed  not  to  give  her  the  least  hint  of  it,  because  it 
was  worse  than  useless,  since  I  was  prevented  from  being 
married  by  my  vow,  by  ecclesiastic  rules,  and  also  by  the 
laws  of  the  state.  I  thought  not  an  instant  of  abusing  my 
ministry  on  her  account ;  which,  however,  would  have  been 
the  easiest  thing  in  the  world.  It  remained,  then,  for  me 
but  to  smother  this  involuntary  love.  At  first  I  tried  to 
believe  it  only  the  effect  of  my  imagination  too  much 
kindled.  But  vain  illusion  !  The  more  I  endeavored  to 
trample  down  this  feeling,  the  more  I  strengthened  it ;  and 
it  increased  every  day.  My  virtue,  indeed,  could  prevent 
me  from  giving  my  consent,  but  it  could  not  prevent  my 
suffering  its  effects  —  the  mental  agony  of  the  conflict. 
Ere  long  I  saw  the  inutility  of  my  exertions  against  it ; 
and  I  thought  I  could  not  do  better  than  to  resign  myself 
to  the  will  of  God,  in  the  hope  that  he  would  doubtless 
help  me  in  my  struggles,  since  I  fought  for  his  glory,  his 
church,  and  my  vows. 

-  My  first  thought,  of  course,  was  of  removing  the  dan- 
ger by  refusing  any  longer  to  confess  her  —  by  giving  up 
the  direction  of  her  soul,  so  perilous  was  it  to  mine  own. 
At  first,  in  the  next  confession,  I  wished  to  sound  her  on 
this  subject,  alleging  for  that  purpose  some  Jesuitical  and 
apparent  reason  ;  lor  my  superiors  had  taught  me  never 
to  be  at  a  loss  for  pretexts.  She  answered  to  me,  '  Fa- 


204         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

ther,  I  gave  you  my  whole  confidence,  I  opened  to  you 
my  heart,  I  unveiled  to  you  my  most  secret  thoughts  with 
as  much  candor  as  if  I  was  but  ten  years  old,  that  you 
might  direct  me  better.  You  know  me  as  well  as  I  know 
myself.  I  do  not  ask  the  reasons  why  you  propose  to  me 
to  exchange  you  for  another.  But,  if  you  deny  me  your 
ministry,  I  must  renounce  the  confession  altogether  ;  for 
you  know  yourself  why  I  left  my  former  confessor  ;  and 
you  will  not  oblige  me  to  go  back  to  him,  neither  to  Mr. 
D.,  nor  to  Mr.  L.7 

"  I  could  not  tell  her  the  true  reason  of  my  conduct,  for 
my  sake  and  for  her  own.  On  the  other  side  I  was  very 
superstitious,  believing,  heartily,  confession  quite  necessary 
to  the  salvation  of  the  soul.  Could  I  then,  with  my  ideas 
of  confession,  assent  to  the  loss  of  her  soul  ?  I  remem- 
bered that  a  true  priest  ought  ever  to  expose  his  own 
salvation  for  the  sake  of  others  ;  and  consequently  the 
design  of  sending  her  to  another  seemed  a  horrible  tempta- 
tion of  the  devil.  However,  in  a  matter  of  so  great  impor- 
tance I  feared  to  direct  myself ;  and  as  in  the  seminary  I 
had  been  told  a  hundred  times  that  our  confessor  ought  to 
rule  all  our  business,  I  went  to  him  ;  I  looked  to  him  as  to 
my  father  and  the  representative  of  God  ;  for  I  practised 
what  I  taught  others  —  viz.,  that  the  confessor  is  the  vice- 
gerent of  God.  He  listened  to  my  singular  declaration 
and  to  my  purpose  of  renouncing  her  confession  if  lie 
thought  best.  He  laughed  at  rne  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
all  my  explanations,  he  could  not,  or  would  not,  understand 
me,  and  at  length  told  me  that  my  love  for  her  was  far 
from  being  a  reason  of  depriving  her  of  my  ministry. 

"  There  then  remained  no  doubt  in  my  own  mind  ;  and  I 
thought  that  God  himself  had  ordered  it  so.  But,  to  di- 
minish the  danger,  1  resolved  to  avoid  any  intercourse 
with  her  except  in  the  confessional ;  and  henceforth  I 
ceased  to  pay  any  visit  to  her  family,  where  I  went  before, 
oftentimes  to  evening  parties,  for  fear  of  seeing  her  and 
increasing  my  fatal  attachment ;  for  the  Holy  Bible  says, 
Quisquis  amat  periculum  in  illo  peribit  — '  Whosoever  loves 
danger  shall  perish  in  it.'  Her  family,  astonished  at  my 
sudden  desertion,  and  especially  her  mother,  asked  me 
why  I  had  deserted  their  house  —  if  they  had  offended  me. 


TESTIMONY  OF   CATHOLIC   PRIESTS.  205 

Thanks  to  my  subterfuges,  I  avoided  the  question  ;  and 
thus  I.  who  would  have  found  my  joy,  my  happiness,  in  this 
house,  banished  myself  from  the  family  where  all  the  de- 
sires of  my  heart  carried  me. 

"  In  speaking  of  what  I  suffered  in  repressing  my  feel- 
ings, I  shall  be  scarcely,  if  at  all,  understood  by  men 
who  put  their  hearts  in  open  air,  who  act  unreservedly, 
who  obey  the  just  dictates  of  Nature  instead  of  having 
been  inured  to  despise  them  and  trample  upon  them  —  by 
men  to  whom  the  lake  of  great  emotions  is  always  drained, 
because  they  do  not  subvert  the  sacred  institutions  of  their 
Creator.  These  men  know  not  with  what  violence  this 
sea  of  human  passion  ferments,  gushes  out,  when  every 
issue  is  denied  to  it  ;  how  it  increases,  swells,  overflows, 
bursts  the  heart,  till  it  has  torn  away  its  bounds  and  dug 
for  itself  a  channel." 

He  proceeds  to  state  how  he  had  recourse  to  the  heaviest 
mortifications,  even  destroying  his  health,  and  then  sought 
for  death  in  attending  on  the  victims  of  a  pestilential  dis- 
ease ;  how  by  degrees  he  came  to  a  knowledge  of  the  licen- 
tious and  mercenary  character  of  the  clergy  and  was  rid- 
iculed for  his  scrupulous  conscientiousness  ;  how  he  was 
tempted  to  infidelity  and  atheism  ;  how  by  the  Bible  he 
was  brought  truly  to  know  God  and  spiritual  religion  ;  and, 
finall}',  how  he  escaped  to  this  country  without  disclosing 
his  feelings  to  the  object  of  his  affection. 

I  rejoice  to  believe  that  even  in  Papal  countries  there 
are  some  such  in  all  ages  whom  the  cruel  system  does  not 
succeed  in  corrupting,  but  mourn  to  think  how  few. 
18 


CHAPTER    IX. 

THE  RESULT. 

To  conclude,  it  must  now  be  added  that  there  is  no  reason 
to  doubt  that  the  intelligent  and  leading  managers  of  the 
Romish  corporation,  as  was  the  case  with  ./Eneas  Sylvius 
and  John  Gerson,  know  this  to  be  the  real  state  of  the 
case,  and  have  adapted  their  policy  to  the  expectation  of 
its  permanent  continuance.  There  is  no  reason  to  regard 
them  as  sincerely  deluded,  as  were  the  early  originators 
of  the  doctrine  of  celibacy.  It  is  no  doubt  true  that  the 
celibacy  of  the  clergy  was  introduced  early  into  the 
church  by  men  who,  under  the  influence  of  prevailing 
errors,  supposed  it  essential  to  the  highest  degree  of  holi- 
ness. Moreover  for  a  time  it  was  probably  maintained 
in  innocence  and  sincerity,  notwithstanding  it  began  im- 
mediately to  develop  its  corrupting  influences,  on  the 
ground  that  these  were  but  the  abuses  of  a  good  thing. 

But  the  time  in  which  this  has  been  innocently  possible 
has  long  since  passed  away.  So  constant,  so  uniform,  so 
fearful  is  the  testimony  of  experience  that  I  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  that  the  more  intelligent  part  of  the  Romish  cor- 
poration, or  at  least  those  who  stand  nearest  to  the  centre 
of  power,  know  perfectly  well  that  all  that  has  been 
stated  by  me  and  others  on  this  subject  is  no  exaggera- 
tion. Nay,  they  well  know  that  it  falls  short  of  the  truth, 

(206) 


THE  RESULT.  207 

and  look  with  contempt  upon  the  easy  simplicity  of  those 
Protestants  who  are  duped  by  their  impudent  representa- 
tions of  the  holiness  of  the  priesthood. 

If,  then,  any  one  should  ask,  How  do  they  look  on  the 
matter  ?  I  reply,  They  expect  that,  in  all  communities  where 
their  system  has  the  ascendency,  the  great  majority  of  the 
clergy  of  all  grades  will  not  be  continent ;  and  they  have 
adjusted  their  morals  so  as  to  accord  with  this  state  of 
things. 

I  desire  to  be  distinctly  understood.  I  do  not  mean  by 
this  that  they  cease  to  teach  the  superior  sanctity  of  celi- 
bacy and  continence,  or  to  claim  for  their  church  superior 
sanctity  on  this  ground,  or  to  represent  the  Protestant 
clergy  who  have  wives  as  sensual  and  unholy.  All  this  is 
necessary  to  preserve  appearances,  and  is  perfectly  well 
understood  among  the  knowing  ones.  Those  who  have 
just  come  from  the  very  depths  of  pollution  and  sensual- 
ism do  not  at  all  hesitate  to  speak  thus. 

If  any  say  that  this  implies  an  inconceivable  degree  of 
baseness,  and  hypocrisy,  and  unprincipled  deceit,  I  answer, 
It  is  no  more  than  has  notoriously  existed  in  many  of  those 
who  stand  at  the  very  head  of  the  system  —  that  is,  the 
popes.  Many  of  them  have  been  known  to  be  the  most 
licentious  wretches  that  have  ever  burdened  this  earth  ; 
and  yet,  in  all  their  bulls  they  assume  the  character  of 
eminent  saints,  the  peculiar  favorites  of  the  Most  High. 
For  example,  Innocent  VIII.,  whose  bull  I  have  quoted,  in 
which  he  sanctions  all  manner  of  perfidy  towards  the  poor 
and  holy  Waldenses,  led  a  most  profligate  life.  It  is  a 
matter  of  dispute  how  many  illegitimate  children  he  had  — 
Onuphrius  stating  in  general  that  he  had  several,  Marullus 
fixing  the  number  at  sixteen.  Certainly,  although  a  num- 
ber of  them  died,  two  survived  his  accession  to  the  Papacy, 
and  were  advantageously  married  and  highly  promoted 


208        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

and  enriched  by  him.  Indeed  it  is  notorious  that  the  same 
things  were  done  by  many  other  popes,  so  that  they  even 
ceased  to  excite  surprise.  Yet  all  these  popes  addressed 
the  church  and  the  world  as  if  they  were  the  very  choicest 
saints  of  God,  even  when  they  w£re  rallying  their  myr- 
midons perfidiously  to  massacre  the  purest  saints  on  earth. 
What  they  mean  by  holiness  we  can  understand  when  we 
recollect  that  they  call  such  butcheries  "  a  holy  work,"  and 
are  not  at  all  troubled  by  the  loathsome  pollution  of  such 
lives. 

Such  are  the  men  whom  the  pen  of  inspiration  has  viv- 
idly and  indignantly  described  as  "  speaking  lies  in  hypoc- 
risy, having  their  consciences  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron."  But 
the  system  of  the  Romish  church  is  exactly  adapted  to 
transform  her  clergy  into  such  men,  and  to  finish  the  work 
by  making  them  infidels  or  atheists. 

If  any  simple  and  charitable  souls,  or  any  under  the 
influence  of  affected  candor  and  liberality,  shall  call  this 
language  harsh  and  uncharitable,  I  will  only  ask  of  them 
for  themselves  to  read  the  testimony  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic councils  and  historians  in  the  ages  preceding  the 
reformation,  when  Protestantism  was  unknown.  I  defy 
any  man  even  to  imagine  a  state  of  things  so  bad  as  is 
there  described  and  proved  by  evidence  of  the  most  in- 
controvertible kind. 

And  yet,  even  after  the  reformation,  in  the  council  of 
Trent,  when  such  facts  were  urged  on  the  Papal  corpora- 
tion by  Roman  Catholic  rulers  as  a  reason  for  repealing 
the  law  of  celibacy,  they  refused  merely  on  grounds  of 
Papal  policy.  On  this  point  Edgar  states  the  following 
impressive  facts  :  — 

"  Albert,  Duke  of  Bavaria,  in  1562,  by  Augustine,  his 
ambassador,  depicted  in  glowing  colors,  before  the  council 
of  Trent,  the  licentiousness  of  the  German  priesthood. 


THE  RESULT.  209 

The  contagion  of  heresy,  the  ambassador  said,  had,  on  ac- 
count of  sacerdotal  profligacy,  pervaded  the*  people  of 
Bavaria  even  to  the  nobility.  A  recital  of  clerical  crim- 
inality would  wound  the  ear  of  chastity.  Debauchery  had 
covered  the  ecclesiastics  with  infamy.  A  hundred  priests, 
so  general  was  the  contagion,  could  hardly  muster  three 
or  four  who  obeyed  the  injunctions  of  chastity.  The 
French  applauded  the  ambassador's  speech.  The  council 
also,  by  its  promoter,  joined  in  the  French  eulogy,  and 
styled  the  Duke  of  Bavaria  the  bulwark  of  the  popedom. 

"The  Emperor  Ferdinand,  though  without  success,  ap- 
plied to  the  pope,  in  1564,  for  a  repeal  of  the  laws  against 
sacerdotal  matrimony.  Maximilian  also,  with  many  of 
the  German  princes,  importuned  Pius  IV.  for  the  same 
purpose.  The  reason  urged  by  the  emperor  was  the 
profligacy  of  the  priesthood.  His  majesty  declared  that 
among  many  of  the  clergy  scarcely  one  could  be  found 
who  lived  in  chastity.  All,  with  hardly  an  exception, 
were  public  fornicators,  to  the  greatest  danger  of  souls 
and  scandal  of  the  people.  A  repeal  of  clerical  celibacy, 
Maximilian  stated,  would  gratify  the  populace  of  Bavaria, 
Bohemia,  Silesia,  Moravia,  Austria,  Cariuthia,  Carniola, 
and  Hungary.  All  these  vast  regions  would  have  rejoiced 
in  the  restoration  of  marriage  among  the  clergy. 

"  The  emperor's  application  was  supported  by  the  Popish 
priesthood  of  Germany.  These,  in  maintenance  of  their 
petition,  alleged  various  reasons.  The  frailty  of  man  ; 
the  difficulty  of  abstinence  ;  the  strength  of  the  passion 
that  prompts  to  marriage  ;  the  permission  of  clerical  wed- 
lock by  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  under  the  Jewish 
and  Christian  dispensations  ;  its  use,  with  few  exceptions, 
by  the  apostles ;  the  instructions  of  Dionysius  to  Piny- 
tus  ;  the  decision  of  the  Xicene  council,  suggested  by 
Paphnutius ;  the  usage  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins  in  the 
east  and  west  till  the  popedom  of  Calixtus,  —  all  these 
arguments  the  German  ecclesiastics  urged  for  the  lawful- 
ness of  sacerdotal  matrimony.  A  second  reason  the  Ger- 
mans deduced  from  clerical  profligacy.  Fifty  priests, 
these  churchmen  confessed,  could  with  difficulty  afford  one 
who  was  not  a  notorious  fornicator,  to  the  offence  of  the 
people  and  the  injury  of  piety.  Sacerdotal  logic  and 
18* 


210         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

learning,  however,  were  unavailing  when  weighed  against 
pontifical  policy  and  ecclesiastical  utility." 

If  we  would  understand  what  this  ecclesiastical  utility 
is,  attend  to  the  Romish  theory  as  reported  by  Edgar  :  — 

"  Cardinal  Rodolf,  arguing  in  a  Roman  consistory  in 
favor  of  clerical  celibacy,  affirmed  that  the  priesthood,  if 
allowed  to  marry,  would  transfer  their  attachment  from 
the  pope  to  their  family  and  prince  ;  and  this  would  tend 
to  the  injury  of  the  ecclesiastical  community.  The  holy 
see,  the  cardinal  alleged,  would,  by  this  means,  be  soon 
limited  to  the  Roman  city.  The  Transalpine  party  in  the 
council  of  Trent  used  the  same  argument.  The  introduc- 
tion of  priestly  matrimony,  this  faction  urged,  would  sever 
the  clergy  from  their  close  dependence  on  the  popedom 
and  turn  their  affections  to  their  family,  and  consequently 
to  their  king  and  country.  Marriage  connects  men  with 
their  sovereign  and  with  the  land  of  their  nativity.  Cel- 
ibacy, on  the  contrary,  transfers  the  attention  of  the  clergy 
from  his  majesty  and  the  state  to  his  holiness  and  the 
Church.  The  man  who  has  a  wife  and  children  is  bound 
by  conjugal  and  paternal  attachment  to  his  country,  and 
feels  the  warmest  glow  of  parental  love,  mingled  with  the 
flame  of  patriotism.  His  interests  and  affections  are  in- 
twined  with  the  honor  and  prosperity  of  his  native  land  ; 
and  this,  in  consequence,  he  will  prefer  to  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  the  Romish  hierarchy  or  the  grandeur  of  the 
Roman  pontiff.  The  dearest  objects  of  his  heart  are  em- 
braced in  the  soil  that  gave  them  birth,  the  people  among 
whom  they  live,  and  the  government  that  affords  them 
projection.  Celibacy,  on  the  contrary,  precludes  all  these 
engagements,  and  directs  the  undivided  affections  of  the 
priesthood  to  the  church  and  its  ecclesiastical  sovereign. 
The  clergy  become  dependent  on  the  pope  rather  than  on 
their  king,  and  endeavor  to  promote  the  prosperity  of  the 
Papacy  rather  than  their  country.  Such  are  not  linked 
with  the  state  by  an  offspring  whose  happiness  is  involved 
in  the  prosperity  of  the  nation.  Gregory  VII.,  accord- 
ingly, the  great  enemy  of  kings,  was  the  distinguished 
patron  of  sacerdotal  celibacy." 


THE  RESULT.  211 

Here  then,  as  before,  in  the  case  of  lying,  perjury,  and 
murder,  the  Romish  corporation  deem  universal  pollution 
and  corruption  a  less  evil  than  the  loss  of  their  own 
usurped  supremacy.  If  peculiar  wrath  and  uncommon 
plagues  are  reserved  by  God  for  any  class  of  men,  surely 
it  must  be  for  such  as  these. 


ADDITIONAL  CHARGES. 

What  has  been  said  may  seem  sufficient  to  prove  that 
Romanism  is  the  enemy  of  man.  It  is  sufficient ;  and  yet 
it  is  far  from  exhausting  the  evidence  that  exists,  and  which 
must  be  considered  in  order  to  gain  a  full  understanding 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  interests  involved  in  the  great 
question  now  at  issue  in  this  nation  and  in  the  Christian 
world. 

It  is  not  possible,  however,  advantageously  to  present 
some  portions  of  the  remaining  argument  until  we  have 
considered  the  evidence  which  exists  that  the  Romish  cor- 
poration has  no  historical  or  scriptural  basis,  but  is  the 
result  of  a  stupendous  system  of  imposture  and  forgery. 

To  the  consideration  of  this  part  of  the  subject  let  us 
now  proceed. 


PAET     III. 

KOMANISM  AN  IMPOSITION  AND  A  FORGEKY. 


CHAPTER    I. 

PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  FACT. 

IT  has  been  seen  that  the  Romish  corporation  places  it- 
self in  such  an  attitude  that  it  is  practically  the  god  of 
this  world.  It  has  an  entire  monopoly  of  the  grace  of 
God  and  of  the  word  of  God.  God  is  invisible  and  inac- 
cessible except  through  the  mediation  of  this  corporation. 

Such  a  claim  ought  to  be  sustained  by  an  amount  and 
a  clearness  of  evidence  corresponding  with  its  impor- 
tance. It  is  estimated  that  Rome  has  shed  the  blood  of 
at  least  fifty  millions  of  Christians  for  refusing  to  admit 
these  claims  ;  it  appears  also  that  she  still  defends  her 
past  course,  and  would  repeat  the  slaughters  if  she  had 
the  power. 

Has  she,  then,  even  a  plausible  ground  for  her  lofty 
claims?  I  answer,  No.  The  presumption  on  a  general 
view  of  the  facts  of  the  case  is  against  her  ;  and  a  fair 
examination  of  the  records  of  history  and  of  inspiration 

(212) 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE   OF  THE  FACT.  213 

is  all  that  is  needed  to  expose  her  as  the  great  mother 
of  imposture  and  forgery. 


PRESUMPTION  AGAINST  ROME,  FROM  HER  SANCTION  OF  LYING. 

The  first  presumptive  argument  against  the  members 
of  the  Romish  corporation  arises  from  the  fact  that  their 
theory  of  morals  is  such  on  the  subject  of  veracity  and 
fidelity  that  it  is  highly  improbable  that  they  have  not 
used  forgery  and  fraud  in  obtaining  their  present  position 
and  power.  It  appears  that  it'is  a  fundamental  part  of 
their  morals  that  the  interests  of  that  corporation  are  of 
more  importance  than  truth  or  fidelity  to  promises,  con- 
tracts, or  oaths.  It  appears  that  they  have  acted  upon 
these  principles  for  ages  and  on  a  scale  of  vast  magnitude. 

Now,  it  is  self-evident  that  these  same  principles  would 
equally  justify  them  in  the  use  of  forgery  and  fraud  in 
order  to  gain  that  power  which  they  consider  of  so  much 
moment,  and  to  extend  and  increase  which  they  resort  to 
measures  so  treacherous  and  unprincipled. 

Must  there  not  be,  therefore,  a  violent  presumption  that 
a  corporation  that  has  promulgated  and  sanctioned,  as  a 
part  of  its  immutable  and  constitutional  law,  the  princi- 
ple that  it  is  right  and  a  duty  to  lie  for  the  sake  of  eccle- 
siastical utility,  has  already  used  this  principle  in  laying 
the  foundations  of  its  own  power  and  authority  ? 

If  the  principle  is  deemed  right,  there  will  be  nothing 
to  prevent  its  use  at  any  time  or  to  any  extent  that  eccle- 
siastical utility  shall  seem  to  demand. 

To  Protestants,  no  doubt,  it  would  appear  to  be  a  great 
crime  to  forge  documents  in  the  name  of  eminent  men  of 
past  ages  in  order  to  substantiate  any  claims  of  any  Prot- 
estant body.  The  training  which  they  receive,  and  the 


214        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

fundamental  principles  of  their  morality,  cause  them  to 
recoil  from  it  with  horror. 

But,  if  the  morality  of  infallible  popes  and  general  coun- 
cils is  any  index  of  the  morals  of  Romish  ecclesiastics, 
they  cannot  regard  it  as  a  crime  to  forge  any  documents 
whatever  which  the  welfare  of  the  church  seems  to  demand. 

There  is  not,  therefore,  in  the  fundamental  morality  of 
that  system  any  thing  to  render  it  at  all  improbable  or 
to  prevent  a  high  probability  that  it  is  entirely  based  up- 
on a  constant  use  of  fraud  and  forgeries  in  the  past  ages 
of  history,  especially  in  those  in  which  there  was  wide- 
spread ignorance  and  little  or  no  critical  skill  to  detect 
such  forgeries. 

Thus  the  Romish  corporation  by  their  own  acts  have 
entirely  cut  themselves  off  from  all  defence  against  such 
imputations  and  presumptions,  and  laid  themselves  open 
to  the  just  imputation  of  a  readiness  to  employ  forgery  or 
fraud  to  any  extent  which  their  corporate  interests  might 
seem  to  demand. 


PEESUMPTION  AGAINST  ROME  FROM  PROPHECY. 

If  we  turn  to  the  word  of  God  we  shall  be  struck  with 
the  remarkable  fact  that  the  rise  of  a  great  power  is  fore- 
told to  be  distinguished  by  these  two  great  characteris- 
tics—  the  first,  that  it  should  arrogate  to  itself  the  place 
of  God  on  earth  ;  the  second,  that,  in  sustaining  such  ar- 
rogant claims,  it  should  resort  to  an  unparalleled  extent 
to  the  use  of  every  kind  of  falsehood  and  fraud.  This 
stupendous  work  of  deception  was  to  be  commenced  soon 
after  the  ascension  of  Christ,  and  was  to  result  in  a  sys- 
tem of  fraud  and  imposture  which,  though  nominally  re- 
ligious, should  be  in  reality  the  masterwork  of  Satan, 


PRESUMPTIVE   EVIDENCE   OP   THE   FACT.  215 

exerting  immense  power,  and  enduring  for  ages,  until  at 
last  it  should  perish  before  the  glorious  coming  of  our 
Savior  to  inflict  just  vengeance  on  his  foes.  The  words 
of  inspiration  are  these,  addressed  to  those  who  had  been 
alarmed  by  an  apprehension  of  the  immediate  coming  of 
Christ,  (2  Thess.  ii.  3-12  :)  — 

"  Let  no  man  deceive  you  by  any  means  ;  for  that  day 
shall  not  come  except  there  come  a  falling  away  first,  and 
that  man  of  sin  be  revealed,  the  son  of  perdition,  who 
opposeth  and  exalteth  himself  above  all  that  is  called 
God  or  that  is  worshipped  ;  so  that  he,  as  God,  sitteth  in 
the  temple  of  God,  showing  himself  that  he  is  God.  Re- 
member ye  not  that,  when  I  was  yet  with  you,  I  told  you 
these  things  ?  And  now  ye  know  what  withholdeth  that 
he  might  be  revealed  in  his  time.  For  the  mystery  of 
iniquity  doth  already  work  ;  only  he  who  now  letteth 
will  let  until  he  be  taken  out  of  the  way.  And  then 
shall  that  Wicked  be  revealed,  whom  the  Lord  shall  con- 
sume with  the  spirit  of  his  mouth  and  shall  destroy  with 
the  brightness  of  his  coming  —  even  him  whose  coming  is 
after  the  working  of  Satan,  with  all  power,  and  signs,  and 
lying  wonders,  and  with  all  deceivableness  of  unright- 
eousness in  them  that  perish  ;  because  they  received  not 
the  love  of  the  truth,  that  they  might  be  saved.  And  for 
this  cause  God  shall  send  them  strong  delusion,  that  they 
should  believe  a  lie  ;  that  they  all  might  be  damned  who 
believed  not  the  truth,  but  had  pleasure  in  unrighteous- 
ness." 

Now,  is  it  not  plain  that  these  words  cannot  be  applied 
to  any  system  except  one  which  makes  peculiar  pretences 
to  take  God's  place  on  earth  —  one  whose  proceedings  are 
manifestly  characterized  by  a  peculiar  use  of  fraud  and 
delusion  —  one  whose  roots  are  found  in  the  early  ages, 
near  to  the  apostles,  and  whose  development  should  last 
till  the  remote  ages  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  and 
whose  power  should  be  finally  destroyed  only  by  the  com- 


216        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

ing  of  Christ  with  divine  power  to  execute  vengeance 
upon  his  haughty  and  usurping  adversary  ? 

Does  not  the  Romish  corporation  practically  take  the 
place  of  God  and  exhibit  itself  as  such,  especially  in  ex- 
alting the  pope,  their  head,  and  giving  him  the  titles  and 
worship  of  God?  Is  not  the  use  of  falsehood,  fraud, 
and  perfidy  their  great  characteristic?  Are  not  the 
roots  of  the  system  in  the  early  ages  ?  Is  it  not  at  this 
time,  as  in  past  ages,  the  great  enemy  of  humanity,  whose 
destruction  is  essential  to  the  coming  of  an  age  of  intel- 
ligence, liberty,  and  social  purity  ?  To  what  other  sys- 
tem, then,  can  the  words  of  the  prophecy  so  reasonably 
be  applied  as  to  the  corporation  of  Rome  ?  Is  not  this 
the  masterpiece  of  Satan  ? 

To  this  argument  the  Romish  corporation  cannot  reply 
that  they  do  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  any  such  being 
as  Satan,  the  great  father  of  lies. 

No  body  of  religionists  professes  a  more  full  and  un- 
doubting  faith  in  the  existence  and  power  of  the  devil 
than  the  Romish  corporation.  They  boldly  proclaim 
that  the  reformation  of  Luther  is  in  an  eminent  degree 
his  work.  All  Bible  and  tract  societies  engaged  in  the 
diffusion  of  divine  truth  they  ascribe  to  his  crafty  and 
malignant  devices.  But,  according  to  them,  the  great  en- 
emy of  the  devil  on  earth  is  the  church  of  Rome,  under 
the  pope,  her  illustrious  head. 

Agreeing,  then,  as  we  do,  that  there  is  a  devil,  the  only 
question  is,  Whose  principles  and  practice  most  resemble 
his?  And  is  it  not  plain  that  the  Romish  doctrine  of 
falsehood  is  a  genuine  and  legitimate  offspring  of  him 
who  is  the  father  of  lies  ?  Have  we  not  reason,  then,  to 
think  that  the  Romish  corporation  also  is  his  work  ? 

I  shall  not  here  offer  any  apology  for  professing  my  be- 
lief of  the  doctrine  of  satanic  agency  or  enter  into  any 


PKESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OP   THE  FACT.  217 

argument  in  its  defence  ;  for  to  the  great  majority  of  the 
Christian  world  it  is  needless.  It  is  held  in  common  by 
the  Romish  church,  the  Greek  church,  and  all  the  other 
Eastern  churches,  and  by  the  whole  evangelical  Protestant 
world,  Lutheran,  Calvinistic,  Episcopal,  Methodist,  Bap- 
tist, £c.,  although  comparatively  little  theological  or  phil- 
osophical use  has  as  yet  been  made  of  it.  As  presented  in 
the  word  of  God,  no  doctrine  is  more  fundamental.  The 
great  end  of  the  incarnation  was  to  destroy  the  devil  and 
his  kingdom  by  the  redemption  of  the  church.  (1  John  iii. 
2.  Heb.  ii.  14,  15.)  Christ  will  reign  as  Mediator  till  it 
is  done  ;  and  then  cometh  the  end.  (1  Cor.  xv.  24,  25.) 

Owing  to  the  depravity  of  man,  he  has,  where  God 
does  not  prevent,  entire  ascendency  over  the  race  :  he 
forms  tremendous  organizations,  and  by  them  deceives 
the  nations  and  governs  the  world.  (2  Cor.  iv.  3,  4. 
Eph.  ii.  1,  2.  Rev.  xiii.  1-4.) 

The  millennial  reign  of  Christ  is  caused,  not  by  the  un- 
aided progress  of  the  human  mind,  but  by  the  exposure 
and  destruction  of  Satan's  organizations,  and  to  his  being 
bound  and  cast  into  the  abyss,  so  as  not  to  be  an  active 
agent  in  the  history  of  the  world  or  able  to  deceive  the 
nations.  (Rev.  xix.  20,  21  ;  xx.  1-8.)  If  these  things 
are  so,  it  must  be  conceded  that  every  system  of  theology, 
history,  or  philosophy  is  fatally  defective  that  omits  him. 
It  is  not  God's  theology,  history,  or  philosophy,  but 
Satan's,  designed  to  hide  himself ;  and  any  system  of 
theology  or  philosophy  is  superficial  that  takes  a  super- 
ficial view  of  him.  To  take  a  profound  and  philosophical 
view  of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  without  a  thorough  analysis 
of  his  character,  and  maxims,  and  modes  of  deceit,  is  im- 
possible. And,  before  this  great  controversy  comes  to  its 
crisis,  he,  and  not  any  individual  or  generation,  will  be  the 
great  subject  of  attack. 
19 


218         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Assuming  the  truth  of  these  views,  I  shall  proceed  to 
present  additional  presumptive  evidence  that  the  Romish 
corporation  is  the  system  of  satanic  fraud  and  delusion 
which  is  predicted  in  the  word  of  God. 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  the  great  system  of  fraud  pre- 
dicted, whatever  it  is,  had  its  roots  in  ages  immediately 
after  Christ,  was  for  a  time  restrained,  but  was  at  last 
developed  and  completed  by  an  astounding  use  of  impos- 
ture and  delusion,  and  exists  even  to  this  day.  Does  this 
general  view  best  accord  with  the  Roman  corporation  or 
with  Protestantism  ?  I  affirm  that  it  best  accords  with 
Romanism.  I  shall,  therefore,  proceed  to  present  the 
presumptive  evidence  that  the  Romish  hierarchy  is  this 
stupendous  system  of  fraud. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  proof,  it  is  suitable  to  state 
explicitly  what  part  is  to  be  assigned  to  man  in  this  stu- 
pendous fraud,  and  also  to  consider  the  nature  and  power 
of  the  additional  presumptive  evidence  which  is  to  be 
adduced. 

What  part,  then,  is  to  be  assigned  to  man  ? 

1.  Not  that  any  one  human  mind  ever  in  any  age  delib- 
erately and  consciously  planned  and  organized  the  whole 
system  from  the  beginning,  knowing  it  to  be  a  fraud,  as 
was  no  doubt  true  in  the  case  of  Joseph  Smith  when  he 
formed  a  plan  to  delude  his  followers  by  the  book  of 
Mormon. 

2.  Nor  that  any  number  of  men  cooperating  in  one 
age,  or  in  different  ages,  ever  planned  it  as  a  whole, 
knowing  it  to  be  a  fraud. 

3.  Nor  that  the  great  mass  of  the  laity  whom  it  has 
deluded  and  controlled  have  ever  supposed  it  to  be  a 
fraud. 

4.  Nor  that  all  of  its  leading  administrators  and  ad- 
vocates have  ever  regarded  it  as  a  fraud,  though  very 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  FACT.       219 

many  have  so  regarded  and  used  it  when  planned  to  their 
hands  —  even  popes,  bishops,  and  priests. 

5.  Nor  that  there  is  no  important  doctrinal  truth  in 
some  of  its  dogmas  :  there  is  much. 

6.  Nor  that  no  good  men  have  ignorantly  contributed 
to  its  formation,  and  lived  under  it,  and  obeyed  it,  as 
victims  of  delusion. 

7.  Nor  that  it  has  never  done  any  good  ;  but  that  the 
truth  and  the  peculiarities  of  the  system  do  not  proper- 
ly belong  together  ;  that  one  is  of  God,  the  other  of  the 
devil  ;  and  that  good  men  under  it  are  made  by  the  truth 
in  spite  of  the  system,  and  not  because  of  it  ;  and  that 
the  good  done  is  and  has  been  done  by  the  same  truth  and 
by  good  men  in  spite  of  the  system,  and  not  because  of  it. 
But  the  system,  as  a  system,  is  false  and  pernicious,  and, 
though  not  framed  at  once  as  a  whole  by  any  man  or 
body  of  men  as  a  fraud,  was  framed  by  that  one  far-seeing, 
comprehensive  mind  of  whom  the  apostle  speaks  —  once  in 
heaven,  and  familiar  with  the  whole  character,  laws,  and 
administration  of  God,  deeply  versed  in  all  questions  of 
theology,  skilled  in  organization  and  government,  perfectly 
acquainted  with  all  the  phases  of  the  human  mind  and  of 
society,  and  a  master  of  alj.  the  arts  of  sophistry  and  de- 
lusion to  a  degree  beyond  the  conception  of  a  human  mind, 
and  before  whom  all  men  and  nations,  not  illuminated  and 
defended  by  God,  are,  by  reason  of  their  dislike  of  the 
truth,  mere  simpletons  —  objects  of  his  craft  and  delusive 
power  —  entangled  in  his  snares,  led  captive  at  his  will. 

He,  living  whilst  generations  die,  is  able  to  lay  a  plan 
requiring  centuries  for  its  execution.  He  can  take  ad- 
vantage of  human  depravity  in  all  its  forms  and  of  the 
deep  dislike  of  men  to  humbling  and  self-denying  truth  ; 
also  of  existing  errors  of  philosophy  or  education,  know- 
ing how  to  combine  them  and  push  them  on  to  their  final 


220        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

results.  Also  he  can  avail  himself  of  the  remaining 
depravity,  worldliness,  and  pride  of  good  men,  and  of 
the  various  errors  which  they  mingle  with  truth.  Also 
he  can  avail  himself  of  existing  defective  forms  of  civil 
organization,  and  of  the  spirit,  associations,  tastes,  and 
habits  produced  by  them,  in  order  by  means  of  them  to 
vitiate  the  spirit  and  form  of  Christian  organization. 
Availing  himself  of  all  these,  he  has  by  a  delusive  pro- 
cess, holding  up  great  and  good  ends,  such  as  preserving 
doctrine  and  unity  in  the  church,  produced  a  system 
adapted  on  the  whole  to  do  as  much  evil  and  as  little 
good  as  in  existing  circumstances  was  possible  ;  for  being 
limited  to  the  problem  of  working  by  delusion,  under  the 
guise  of  Christianity,  he  could  not  work  at  all  without 
doing  some  good  and  without  some  good  men  to  work 
with.  All  that  he  could  do  would  be  to  profess  enough 
good  to  put  men  off  their  guard,  and  actually  to  do  a  cer- 
tain amount  of  good,  or  at  least  allow  it  to  be  done  by  those 
who  had  a  heart  to  do  it.  But  he  would  make  the  pre- 
ponderating influence  evil  to  the  highest  degree  he  could. 
Now,  when  I  call  the  system  of  the  Romish  hierarchy  a 
stupendous  fraud,  I  mean  that  it  is  a  system,  devised  by 
Satan  for  this  very  end,  and  that  by  it  he  has  thus  far 
gained  it  to  an  astonishing  extent.  The  delusion  has 
been  strong  and  complete  to  an  amazing  degree.  It  has 
been  strong  delusion  to  believe  a  lie.  The  system  has 
wielded  vast  power  and  endured  for  century  after  centu- 
ry. By  it  Satan  has  still  retained  his  position  as  the  god 
of  this  world,  and,  what  is  still  more  amazing,  has  placed 
his  throne  in  the  temple  of  God,  and  thence  sent  forth 
his  decrees  to  the  nations  and  done  his  will  without  let 
or  hinderance.  I  therefore  can  even  suppose  that  Mr. 
Brownson  and  other  lay  Romanists  are  free  from  any  at- 
tempt to  sustain  a  known  and  designed  fraud.  I  can 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  FACT.       221 

regard  them  simply  as  the  sincere  but  deluded  subjects  of 
a  higher  fraud,  and  would  desire  in  meekness  to  instruct 
them,  if  peradventure  God  may  give  them  repentance,  to 
the  acknowledging  of  the  truth,  and  that  they  may  deliver 
themselves  from  the  snares  of  Satan  who  are  led  captive 
by  him  at  his  will.  Nor  let  any  one  suppose  that  I  mean 
any  disrespect  by  this.  The  existence  of  a  devil  has 
always  been  a  fundamental  doctrine  of  the  Romish  system  ; 
nor  do  they  hesitate  to  declare  that  Protestantism  is  his 
work.  Hence  Mr.  Brownson  represents  the  devil  as 
greatly  enraged  by  the  present  onset  of  the  Roman  world 
upon  it  and  speaking  great  swelling  words  in  its  defence. 

Now,  as  both  systems  agree  most  fully  in  teaching  the 
existence  of  a  devil,  and  as  they  are  logical  opposites, 
of  one  or  the  other  the  devil  is  the  author,  and  the  advo- 
cates of  one  or  the  other  are  deluded.  The  Romanists 
charge  it  on  the  Protestants,  and  the  Protestants  retort 
the  charge  ;  and  thus  they  come  to  a  logical  issue.  Just 
so  was  it  between  the  Jews  and  Christ.  They  charged 
on  him  a  league  with  the  devil.  He  retorted  on  them  the 
charge  that  they  were  of  their  father  the  devil  ;  and  so 
they  came  to  an  issue. 

I  proceed  to  show  that  the  logical  presumption  is  that 
the  Romish  hierarchy  is  a  stupendous  fraud  of  the  devil. 

What,  then,  is  the  nature  and  power  of  the  presumptive 
evidence  which  I  propose  to  adduce?  It  is  that  which 
arises  from  the  action  of  the  mind  when  it  takes  a  rapid 
and  comprehensive  view  of  the  leading  facts  of  a  given 
case  and  asks  what  hypothesis  best  explains  them. 

Here  a  general  knowledge  of  God  and  of  the  laws  and 
principles  of  his  system  is  supposed  ;  also  of  men  and 
human  society  ;  also  of  the  devil,  and  his  character,  laws, 
and  modes  of  proceeding.  And  the  question  is  raised, 
Which  looks  most  likely  —  that  this  system  is  of  God  as  it 
19* 


222        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

claims,  or  that  it  is  a  stupendous  fraud  of  the  devil  ?  This 
is  an  effort  of  the  mind  to  guard  itself  against  limited, 
onesided  views,  or  against  the  delusive  power  of  dialectic 
sophistry,  which  it  may  not  see  how  at  once  to  analyze 
and  destroy.  It  is  like  ascending  a  mountain  and  taking 
at  a  glance  a  general  view  of  the  prospect  around.  It 
deserves  great  regard  ;  and  it  enables  sound  and  compre- 
hensive minds  at  once  to  see  the  general  current  or  drift 
of  evidence  on  a  given  point. 

Taking,  then,  in  the  first  place  a  general  view,  I  assert 
that,  when  we  consider  the  extraordinary  and  all-compre- 
hending claims  of  this  corporation,  the  prodigious  powers 
of  despotism  they  would  grasp  in  their  hands,  the  manner  in 
which  such  claims  ought  to  be  proved,  the  kind  and  degree 
of  proof  offered,  and  the  general  mode  in  which  they  have 
in  all  ages  conducted  the  argument,  the  whole  procedure 
has  on  its  face  the  appearance  of  a  stupendous  fraud. 

The  points  asserted  and  to  be  proved  are,  1.  That 
Christ  intended  to  have  a  permanent  corporation  of 
bishops  under  one  universal  bishop,  —  his  representative 
and  vicar,  —  as  successors  of  the  apostles,  who  should 
have,  as  a  corporation,  inspiration,  infallibility,  and  inde- 
fectibility.  2.  That  such  a  body  is  a  church  in  any  proper 
sense,  and  not  a  mere  ecclesiastical  hierarchy.  3.  That 
Peter  was  the  first  head  of  this  body.  4.  Not  only  that 
Peter  was  at  Rome,  but  that  he  had  his  see  there,  as  uni- 
versal bishop  of  the  church  on  earth.  5.  That  his  su- 
premacy was  to  descend  to  his  successors.  6.  That  God 
speaks  and  acts  exclusively  through  this  corporation  ;  so 
that  all  who  reject  them  reject  God,  and  cannot  believe  or 
be  saved.  Such  are  the  claims  put  forth  with  the  highest 
assurance  in  the  centre  of  New  England  and  before  the 
civilized  world  and  God  most  high. 

Now,  in  cases  far  less   momentous  there  are  principles 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE   OP  THE   FACT.  223 

of  proof  by  which  the  common  sense  of  mankind  is  wont 
to  test  any  claims  affecting  life,  reputation,  or  estate  ;  and 
there  are  intrinsic  marks  of  honesty  in  presenting  and 
sustaining  such  claims  ;  so  that  the  mind,  without  going 
into  logical  details,  receives,  by  an  instantaneous  judg- 
ment, a  conviction  of  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  claims. 
I  shall  show  that  it  is  utterly  impossible  fairly  to  state 
these  claims,  and  then  put  side  by  side  the  proof  on  which 
they  are  based,  without  comment,  and  then  consider  the 
mode  in  which  the  argument  has  always  been  conducted, 
without  producing  an  instantaneous  conviction  that  the 
whole  system  is  a  stupendous  fraud  practised  on  the 
credulity  of  the  human  race. 

I  am  aware  that  the  Romanists  repudiate  this  view  as 
absurd  and  incredible  ;  but  there  are  no  pledges  of  God 
against  the  occurrence  in  the  nominal  church  of  such  a 
corruption  as  this  would  imply,  beginning  early,  extending 
wide,  and  changing  the  most  powerful  acting  church  to  a 
harlot.  Against  this  the  Romanists  cry  out,  as  a  breach 
of  God's  covenant  to  the  church,  as  the  Jews  did  when 
Paul  announced  their  rejection  and  ruin.  "  If  this  is  so, 
then  the  gates  of  hell  have  prevailed  against  the  church," 
say  they.  The  whole  force  of  this  goes  upon  the  assump- 
tion that  the  gates  of  hell  here  spoken  of  are  not  the 
gates  of  Rome,  and  that  the  oath  of  God  does  not  bind 
him  to  destroy  her  in  order  to  defend  his  church  against 
the  gates  of  hell.  And  truly  nothing  is  adapted  more 
clearly  to  show  the  power  of  God  than  to  defend  and 
preserve  in  this  world  a  spiritual  church,  notwithstanding 
the  debaucheries,  rage,  and  bloody  persecutions  of  Rome. 
All  this  looks  vastly  like  defending  the  church  against  the 
gates  of  hell  and  the  armies  of  hell  issuing  from  those 
gates. 

But,  not  to  rely  on  a  mere  negative  statement,  we  do 


224         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

know  from  the  passage  quoted  that  a  stupendous  fraud 
was  to  take  place  under  the  presiding  influence  of  Satan, 
involving  so  much  power,  and  leading  to  an  opposition  to 
God  so  great,  that  its  destruction  should  call  for  a  special 
interposition  of  Christ  by  the  spirit  of  his  mouth  and  the 
brightness  of  his  appearing.  Indeed  the  letters  of  Christ 
to  the  seven  churches,  the  letters  of  Paul,  and  the  Apoc- 
alypse of  John  all  speak  one  language  on  this  subject. 
They  all  portend  a  widespread  and  fatal  apostasy  in  the 
visible  church  ;  that  the  real  church  should  as  it  were  lie 
hid,  and  yet  be  miraculously  defended  by  God  against  the 
rage  of  Satan  in  the  ruling  church. 

"We  are  also  distinctly  informed  in  the  text  that  the 
elements  out  of  which  it  was  to  be  formed  were  then  in 
existence  and  at  work,  repressed  indeed  by  certain  causes, 
but  sure  to  develop  themselves  when  those  causes  should 
be  removed.  Again :  we  know  that  the  full  development 
of  the  pure  and  holy  church  of  God,  the  marriage  supper 
of  the  Lamb,  the  conversion  of  the  world,  the  binding  of 
Satan,  and  the  reign  of  Christ  were  unfolded  as  events  in 
the  far-distant  future,  to  be  preceded  by  a  period  of  great 
iniquity,  in  which  the  bottomless  pit  should  be  opened 
and  stupendous  satanic  systems  be  developed,  the  destruc- 
tion of  which  should  precede  and  introduce  those  glorious 
events. 

No  points  are  more  distinctly  marked  in  the  word  of 
God  than  these.  (See  Rev.  xix.  20.)  They  are  like  lofty 
mountain  peaks ;  nothing  can  hide  or  obscure  them.  They 
are  in  pointed  contradiction  of  the  Romish  hypothesis, 
that  the  first  thing  after  Christ  was  the  full  development 
of  the  true  church  ;  they  fall  in  entirely  with  the  Protes- 
tant view,  that  the  first  great  and  organized  system  to  be 
developed  was  a  stupendous  fraud,  imposed  on  the  world 
by  Satan  in  the  guise  of  a  church  of  God. 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  FACT.       225 

A  second  presumptive  argument  lies  in  the  nature  of  the 
system  as  it  is  now  presented  to  us  in  its  perfected  state. 
What  is  this  system?  Suppose  all  opposition  to  cease, 
and  let  it  have  its  way  ;  what  would  it  become?  A  close 
corporation,  invested  with  the  monopoly  of  the  grace  of 
God,  and  of  heaven  and  hell,  to  the  whole  human  race, 
centralized  by  a  universal  spiritual  monarch,  denying  in 
the  name  of  God  any  responsibility  to  any  human  power 
on  earth. 

Think  now  what  man  is  —  that  the  experience  of  all 
ages  has  taught  us  that  the  possession  of  irresponsible 
power  above  all  things  corrupts  its  possessors  ;  think  that 
even  Paul  needed  the  counterpoise  of  constant  afflictions 
to  keep  him  from  pride  ;  and  then  ask,  Are  we  to  expect 
that  Romish  popes  and  bishops,  as  a  general  fact,  will  be 
such  paragons  of  piety  and  humility  that  all  this  honor 
and  power  will  not  corrupt  and  injure  them  ?  I  do  not 
ask  what  the  facts  have  been  ;  that  I  shall  consider  when  I 
proceed  to  demonstrate  that  the  system  is  of  the  devil.  I 
am  looking  merely  at  the  general  aspect  of  the  system 
now.  God,  we  know,  above  all  things  abhors  pride.  Does 
this  system,  now,  look  like  an  exquisite  divine  device  to  pro- 
mote humility?  Look  at  its  bishops,  archbishops,  patri- 
archs, metropolitans,  cardinals,  and  at  the  summit  of  the 
great  pyramid,  the  absolute  monarch  of  eight  hundred  mil- 
lions of  men,  —  for  such  he  claims  to  be  by  divine  right, — 
and  does  it  strike  you  as  God's  school  of  humility,?  Think 
what  Christ  said  when  the  disciples  disputed  who  should 
be  greatest  ;  how  he  mentioned  the  bad  precedents  of  the 
aspiring  great  men  of  this  world  only  to  condemn  them 
and  to  say,  Among  you  it  shall  not  be  so  ;  and  is  it  prob- 
able that  nevertheless  he  meant  to  found  a  spiritual  aris- 
tocracy, centralized  by  an  absolute  monarch,  in  comparison 
with  which  all  the  ambitious  dreams  of  Alexander,  Caesar, 
and  Bonaparte  are  eclipsed  and  disappear  ? 


226         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

.  Again  :  think  of  him  whose  essence  is  pride  —  who  said, 
"  I  will  mount  up ;  I  will  be  as  God  ;  "  is  it  likely  that  we 
are  to  find  his  great  antagonist  in  such  a  system  as  this? 
Does  it  not  rather  seem  to  bear  his  very  image  and  super- 
scription ?  Does  it  seem  as  if  Satan,  if  he  had  desired  a  sys- 
tem to  call  into  his  service  the  strongest  depraved  passions 
of  the  human  heart,  pride,  and  the  love  of  wealth,  honor, 
power,  and  sensual  indulgence,  could  have  devised  a  better 
plan  ?  And  is  this,  after  all,  the  only  church  of  the  living 
God,  out  of  which  there  can  be  no  holiness  and  no  salva- 
tion ?  Is  it  not  more  likely  that  this  is  the  man  of  sin 
spoken  of  in  the  text,  whom  the  Lord  will  consume  by  the 
breath  of  his.  mouth  and  destroy  by  the  brightness  of  his 
coming? 

I  am  aware  that  a  cover  of  piety  may  be  thrown  over  all 
this  and  much  said  of  unity  and  orthodoxy  ;  and  we  may 
be  told  that  we  must  trust  in  God  to  take  care  that  his  bride, 
his  wife,  does  not  abuse  her  power.  We  will  trust  in  God 
indeed.  But  prove  to  us,  first,  that  this  corporation  is  his 
bride,  his  wife  ;  for,  to  speak  the  simple  truth,  she  looks 
far  more  like  the  harlot  of  Satan,  attired  in  scarlet,  than 
like  the  bride,  the  Lamb's  wife,  attired  in  fine  linen,  clean 
and  white. 

Another  presumptive  argument  that  the  system  is  a  stu- 
pendous fraud  is  found  in  the  extreme  scantiness  of  the 
scriptural  proof  by  which  it  is  sustained. 

There  is  no  specific,  formal,  and  definite  statement  of  the 
system  in  the  Bible  such  as  a  system  of  power  like  this 
ought  to  have.  Compare  the  statement  of  powers  of 
officers  in  the  laws  of  Moses,  and  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and  in  the  case  of  Christ,  with  the  state- 
ments claimed  for  this  corporation  as  its  scriptural  proofs. 
Now,  this  corporation  is,  according  to  Romanists,  more  im- 
portant than  all  God  has  done  besides  —  more  so  than  the 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  FACT.  22  < 

atonement  or  the  Bible.  They  are  absolutely  of  no  use 
without  it.  The  system  of  God  cannot  go,  it  utterly  fails, 
without  it.  If  so,  do  not  reason  and  common  sense  say 
it  ought  to  be  fully  stated  in  the  Bible  ?  If  a  mechanic, 
designing  to  teach  a  nation  how  to  make  and  use  steam- 
boats, should  describe  all  other  parts  of  the  system,  but 
should  omit  all  mention  of  steam,  and  of  the  boiler  and  its 
attendant  machinery,  what  should  we  think  of  it  ?  But  if 
this  corporation,  with  their  head,  is  the  mainspring  of  the 
system,  why  is  it  not  fully  described?  When  the  disciples 
were  contending  who  should  be  greatest,  it  would  have 
been  easy  to  say,  Peter  shall  be  universal  bishop,  and  to 
arrange  the  whole  matter.  When  Peter  was  writing  his 
epistles,  it  would  have  been  easy  for  him,  if  he  was  at 
Rome,  to  say  so,  and,  if  he  was  head  of  the  church,  to 
write  in  that  style.  It  would  have  been  easy  for  Paul, 
when  writing  to  Rome,  to  recognize  the  fact  that  Peter 
was  the  bishop  of  that  church,  that  his  see  was  there, 
and  that  his  dominion  and  that  of  his  successors  was  co- 
extensive with  the  globe.  And  as  the  successors  of  the 
apostles  were  to  have  only  corporate  inspiration  and 
infallibility,  it  would  have  been  easy  to  state  it  and 
how  it  was  to  be  exercised  —  a  thing  not  even  yet 
decided. 

Now,  how  easy  would  it  have  been  to  have  started  right 
at  the  beginning  if  the  claims  of  this  corporation  are  true  ! 
But,  alas  1  what  an  utter  void  is  there  where  indisputable 
proof  ought  to  be  found  !  True,  certain  things  are  said  to 
the  apostles,  and  it  is  implied  that  they  were  to  have 
successors  of  some  sort,  and  that  with  them  Christ  would 
be  to  the  end  of  the  world  ;  but  not  a  step  can  be  taken 
without  begging  the  question  who  these  successors  should 
be.  True,  also,  certain  things  are  said  to  Peter ;  but 
here,  too,  not  a  step  can  be  taken  without  begging  the 


228        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

question  and  assuming  their  own  interpretation  as  the 
only  correct  one.  But  as  to  Rome,  and  a  see  there,  &c., 
there  is  an  utter  blank. 

Indeed  the  celebrated  Newman,  the  leader  of  the  Trac- 
tarians,  now,  like  Mr.  Brownson,  in  the  bosom  of  Rome,  in 
his  work  on  ecclesiastical  development,  designed  to  say 
all  in  behalf  of  Rome  that  he  can,  is  obliged  to  admit  the 
truth  of  all  I  say.  He  confesses  that  the  passages  of 
Scripture  claimed  by  the  Papal  see  are  "  more  or  less  ob- 
Bcurc,  and  NEEDS  A  COMMENT."  He  admits  that  the  Pa- 
pacy was  not  developed  or  known  during  the  first  two  cen- 
turies, nor  were  ecumenical  councils.  He  assigns,  too,  the 
reason  why — the  persecuting  pagan  Roman  empire  rendered 
the  development  of  such  a  system  impossible.  He  resorts 
to  the  idea  of  an  intended  divine  development  of  it  when 
it  appeared.  There  was  a  development,  no  doubt ;  but 
whether  of  God  or  of  the  devil  is  the  question.  To  me 
Newman's  words  look  like  an  undesigned  comment  on 
Paul's  statement,  in  the  passage  quoted,  of  the  temporary 
repression  of  the  mystery  of  iniquity,  and  its  development 
when  the  obstacle  should  be  removed. 

Hear  him  :  "  An  international  bond  "  [like  the  Papacy] 
"  and  a  common  authority  could  not  be  consolidated,  were 
it  ever  so  certainly  provided,  while  persecutions  lasted. 
If  the  imperial  power  checked  the  development  of  coun- 
cils, it  availed  also  for  keeping  back  the  power  of  the 
Papacy."  But  when  persecution  was  removed,  it  was,  ac- 
cording to  him,  developed,  and,  when  the  imperial  power 
fell,  still  more  so.  Amen.  So  I  understand  Paul  to  assert 
of  the  man  of  sin  in  the  text.  At  all  events,  Mr.  New- 
man is  compelled  to  concede  my  facts.  He  admits  that 
for  two  centuries  "  the  regalia  Petri  *  slept,"  as  "  a  mys- 

*  Royal  and  supreme  authority  of  Peter. 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE   OF  THE  FACT.  229 

terious  privilege  not  understood  — as  an  unfulfilled  proph- 
ecy." 

And  is  it  likely  that  this  is  the  way  God  would  have 
established  a  power  on  the  reception  of  which  heaven  and 
hell  depend,  without  which  the  Bible  cannot  be  under- 
stood —  by  a  few  obscure  passages,  so  obscure  that  for  two 
centuries  no  one  understood  them,  and  the  powers  giv- 
en slumbered  like  the  meaning  of  an  unfulfilled  proph- 
ecy ?  And  yet  nothing  more  does  even  Mr.  Newman  dare 
to  claim. 

No  wonder  that  the  Eomanists  think  that  the  Bible 
needs  the  church  for  an  interpreter  ;  for  no  other  body  in 
heaven  or  on  earth  could  get  any  support  for  their  hier- 
archy out  of  it.  Plainly  at  first  sight  it  is  not  there ; 
and  you  may  strain  your  eyes,  and  yet  you  cannot  see  it. 
If  all  this  is  not  strong  presumptive  evidence  of  a  stupen- 
dous fraud,  I  know  not  what  is. 

Another  presumptive  evidence  of  a  stupendous  fraud  is 
the  manner  in  which  the  argument  has  been  conducted 
from  age  to  age. 

The  claims  of  the  hierarchy  are  not  the  same  from  age 
to  age ;  they  are  now  stupendous  and  all-comprehending. 
Go  back  beyond  Gregory  VII. ,  and  how  are  they  dimin- 
ished !  Go  back  to  the  days  of  Augustine,  and  how  are 
they  still  diminished !  Go  back  to  the  first  century,  and 
they  disappear.  The  system  is  like  a  pyramid  standing 
on  its  apex  and  with  its  base  upward  ;  and  Mr.  Newman 
is  trying  to  prop  it  up  by  developments  and  Mr.  Brown- 
son  by  a  priori  arguments.  But  what  does  it  most  resem- 
ble —  the  honesty  of  God,  or  the  fraud  of  a  deceiving  spirit, 
augmenting  his  claims  as  best  he  can  by  any  means,  fair 
or  foul,  from  age  to  age? 

Again  :  her  universal  reliance,  when  in  the  majority,  on 
force,  and  not  on  argument,  betokens  that  she  is  the  tern- 
20 


THE  PAPAL   CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

pie  of  the  father  of  lies,  and  not  of  God.  When  they 
are  in  the  minority  her  advocates  disclaim  the  use  of 
force.  But  does  the  infallible  hierarchy  ?  Let  the  coun- 
cils of  the  Lateran  ;  let  the  dungeons,  and  racks,  and  stakes 
of  the  Inquisition  ;  let  the  crusades  against  the  Albigenses 
and  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew ;  let  the  oceans  of 
blood  shed  by  her  authority  and  order,  reply.  And  does 
this  create  a  presumption  that  the  presiding  spirit  of  that 
church  is  mild,  and  meek,  and  gentle,  sustained  by  an 
inward  consciousness  that  God  and  all  the  truth  in  the 
universe  are  on  her  side?  Or  is  it  like  the  conduct  of  a 
ruling  spirit  who  knows  that  the  whole  fabric  is  based  on 
lies,  and  that,  so  soon  as  true  logic  and  true  holiness  shall 
have  free  course  and  divine  energy,  he  and  his  system  will 
be  plunged  together  into  a  lake  of  logical  and  unquench- 
able fire  ? 

Again  :  the  same  presumption  that  the  whole  system  is 
one  of  fraud  is  created  by  the  unfeigned  horror  with 
which  it  has  regarded  the  translation  and  circulation  of 
the  Bible  in  the  living  languages  of  men.  Is  not  this  a 
clear  presumption  of  fraud?  Is  the  President  of  these 
United  States  afraid  of  the  constitution  of  these  United 
States?  Does  he  deem  it  a  dangerous  document?  Does 
he  wish  to  lock  it  up  in  Latin  and  keep  it  out  of  the  hands 
of  the  people?  Why  then  the  constant  roaring  of  the 
pope  against  Bible  societies  ?  Is  not  the  Bible  the  con- 
stitution of  the  kingdom  of  Christ?  And,  if  he  meant  to 
have  a  pope  in  his  church,  is  not  his  office  clearly  set  forth 
in  the  constitution  of  his  church  ?  Alas !  Mr.  Newman 
tells  us  the  passages  claimed  by  the  pope  are  "  more  or 
less  obscure,  and  need  a  comment."  Even  so  they  do  need 
a  comment,  and  one  that  is  able  to  subvert  the  obvious 
sense  of  the  whole  Bible.  Hence  the  indispensable  ne- 
cessity of  keeping  the  Bible  in  their  own  hands  if  they 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE   OF  THE  FACT.  281 

can,  and  at  least  of  obliging  all  men,  on  pain  of  eternal 
damnation,  implicitly  to  believe  their  interpretation  of  it. 
Five  bulls  against  Bible  societies  have  been  issued  in  the 
last  thirty  years  —  the  last  in  1844.  It  chills  the  blood  to 
hear  in  what  manner  they  speak  of  the  Bible  and  of  the 
"  crafty  device  "  of  circulating  the  revealed  word  of  God. 
The  devil,  it  would  seem,  in  his  rage  against  Rome,  has 
become  the  great  patron  of  Bible  societies.  It  is  hard  to 
tell  whether  this  is  most  blasphemous  or  ludicrous.  And 
what  is  the  flimsy  pretext  of  all  this  ?  Do  they  talk  of 
inaccurate  versions  ?  Surely  they  were  admirable  judges 
who  in  the  council  of  Trent  declared  the  Vulgate  the  ul- 
timate standard  of  appeal,  with  all  its  notorious  errors. 
And  why?  Because  the  infallible  bishops  of  that  council, 
according  to  Sarpi,  did  not  know  enough  of  Hebrew  and 
Greek  to  read  it  in  the  original,  and  in  Latin  they  could 
read  it.  And  so  Mr.  Brownson  now  appeals  to  the  Latin 
original  instead  of  the  Hebrew  or  Greek  !  Is  this  the 
church  to  be  so  fierce  against  inaccurate  translations? 
But  the  pretext  is  too  flimsy.  Beneath  those  ecclesiastical 
robes  and  forms  of  piety  in  the  midst  of  that  church  there 
meets  the  eye  a  presiding  spirit  whose  whole  soul  is  filled 
with  dread  and  hatred  of  the  word  of  God.  To  him 
it  is  a  consuming  fire  ;  and  hence  in  rage  he  would  burn 
it  with  fire.  When  the  time  comes  I  shall  exhibit  at  large 
the  treatment  it  has  received  from  the  hierarchy.  At  this 
time  I  present  only  that  impression  which  a  general  view 
of  facts  at  once  forces  on  an  honest  mind.  Nothing  is  a 
stronger  presumptive  argument  against  this  church  than 
this  constant  dread  of  the  word  of  God,  and  earnest  de- 
sire- to  introduce  apocryphal  books  and  human  traditions 
as  the  basis  of  her  arguments  in  order  to  sustain  a  sink- 
ing cause.  But  no  human  tongue  can  tell  one  half  of  the 
fearful  truth  on  this  point.  I  leave  it  to  be  fully  disclosed 


232        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

by  Him  who,  by  the  spirit  of  his  mouth  and  the  brightness 
of  his  coming,  shall,  like  devouring  fire,  forever  consume 
this  stupendous  system  of  organized  fraud. 

If  any  one  desires  to  reply  to  this,  let  him,  if  he  dares, 
first  give  a  complete  and  discriminating  analysis  of  the 
character,  maxims,  and  spirit  of  God  and  of  Satan  in  con- 
trast and  according  to  the  word  of  God.  Who  will  de- 
ny that  there  is  a  broad,  an  infinite,  distinction  between 
their  characters,  maxims,  and  spirit,  as  laid  down  in  the 
word  of  God  ?  What  is  it?  Let  the  Romanists,  then,  do 
what  they  never  yet  have  done  —  let  them  state  the  exact 
difference  between  God  and  the  devil,  not  in  general 
terms,  but  in  a  practical  point  of  view  and  according  to 
his  word,  and  then  prove,  if  they  can,  that  the  facts  in 
the  history  of  their  church  to  which  I  have  referred  create 
a  logical  presumption  that  God  is  its  author,  and  not  the 
devil.  But  this  they  can  never  do.  Nay,  that  is  saying 
but  little.  When  such  a  contrast  of  the  character  of  God 
and  the  devil  shall  be  made,  it  will  become,  according  to 
the  law  of  cause  and  effect,  as  logically  certain  as  the  law 
of  gravitation  that  no  being  but  the  devil  can  be  the  au- 
thor and  presiding  spirit  of  that  church.  But  the  full 
proof  on  this  point  Lreserve  to  a  future  argument.  It  is 
enough  that  I  have  clearly  stated  at  present  the  presump- 
tive proof  that  the  whole  system  is  a  stupendous  fraud  of 
Satan. 

When  God  comes  to  destroy  that  system  he  will  admit 
of  no  neutrality.  If  it  is  not  what  it  professes  to  be,  there 
is  no  blasphemy  like  it,  nor  will  God  display  towards  any 
other  system  such  fierceness  of  wrath.  Let  every  man, 
then,  take  care  on  which  side  he  is  found  in  this  final  .war. 

Let  us  never  forget  that  the  enemy  with  whom  we  con- 
tend is  superhuman,  the  common  enemy  of  the  human  race  ; 
and  let  us  not  hate  those  whom  he  deceives,  but  pity 


PRESUMPTIVE  EVIDENCE  OF  THE  FACT.      233 

them,  love  them,  and  pray  for  them.  God  has  saved 
millions  from  that  delusive  system ;  he  can  save  millions 
more.  Pray,  then,  for  the  deluded  millions  of  Italy,  Por- 
tugal, Spain,  Austria,  and  France.  Pray  for  the  millions 
of  our  own  land  and  of  all  lands.  There  is  power  in 
prayer.  Feel  for  them  ;  they  are  deluded.  Satan  is  their 
enemy  and  ours.  Pray  that  the  vials  of  God's  wrath  may 
fall  on  him,  and  that  they  may  be  delivered  from  their 
miserable  bondage  to  him,  and  be  saved.  The  time  for 
the  utter  destruction  of  that  system  plainly  draws  near ; 
the  truth  must  be  spoken,  and  spoken  boldly  ;  but  the 
main  work  is  to  be  done  by  the  Holy  Ghost  and  by 
prayer. 

20* 


CHAPTER    II. 

ARGUMENT  FROM  HISTORY. 

IT  is  certainly  very  unusual  to  be  called  on  to  make 
the  charge  of  a  regular  and  extensive  system  of  forgery 
and  fraud  upon  a  powerful  corporation  professing  to  be 
religious,  and  even  to  assert  that  the  very  existence  of 
that  corporation  is  owing  to  such  forgery  and  fraud. 

In  ordinary. cases  I  would  not  do  it;  but  this  is  no 
ordinary  case.  In  common  cases  any  corporation  profess- 
ing to  be  respectable  has  a  right  to  the  presumption  that 
it  will  not  practise  forgery  and  gross  deception.  The 
reason  is  that  they  all  avow  the  principle  that  these 
things  are  always  wrong. 

But  with  the  Romish  corporation  it  is  not  so.  They 
avow  the  doctrine  that  to  lie  and  deceive  for  ecclesiastical 
utility  is  right.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  obviously  im- 
possible to  create  a  presumption  that  the  system  was  not 
formed  by  the  use  of  forgery  and  fraud.  On  the  other 
hand,  there  must  be  a  very  strong  presumption  that  it  was. 

I  do  not  hesitate,  therefore,  to  say  that  facts  accord 
with  this  presumption,  and  that  there  is  the  most  unequiv- 
ocal historical  evidence  that  such  was  the  origin  of  the 
system.  Nor  is  the  evidence  of  this  assertion  sparing  or 
feeble.  It  can  be  demonstrated,  by  even  a  superfluity  of 
unequivocal  and  undeniable  historical  evidence,  that  the 
principle  of  lying  for  ecclesiastical  utility  is  the  absolute 

(234) 


ARGUMENT  FROM  HISTORY-.  235 

creator  of  every  .part  and  particle  of  the  Romish  corpora- 
tion as  it  now  exists. 

Not  a  feature  of  its  present  constitution  can  be  men- 
tioned that  cannot  be  traced  back  by  the  clearest  histor- 
ical evidence  to  a  time  when  it  did  not  exist,  and  the  pro- 
cess can  be  shown  through  which  it  was  created  by  fraud 
and  *brgery.  There  is,  in  fact,  nothing  to  be  compared 
with  this  system  of  forgery  for  its  magnitude  and  results 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  But  at  this  we  need  not  won- 
der. If  the  principle  of  lying  for  ecclesiastical  utility  is 
sound,  why  should  it  not  be  carried  out  on  a  great  scale  ? 

But  to  descend  to  particulars.  The  pope  is  now  a  tem- 
poral ruler  of  a  territory  about  three  times  as  large  as  the 
State  of  Massachusetts.  It  stretches  across  Italy  from  the 
Mediterranean  to  the  Adriatic.  It  is  an  essential  part  of 
.the  present  system.  It  makes  him  independent  of  any 
temporal  ruler.  He  is  bound  by  no  oath  of  allegiance  to 
any  earthly  sovereign.  This  is  felt  to  be  essential  in 
order  to  carry  out  his  claims  as  a  universal  spiritual  sov- 
ereign. Was  it  always  thus?  I  answer.  No.  He  was 
not  always  ruler  of  this  or  of  any  other  territory.  We  can 
trace  back  the  history  of  this  matter  to  the  beginning  ; 
and  we  find  that  the  original  claim  was  founded  on  a 
most  notorious  forgery,  purporting  to  be  a  donation  of 
territory  from  the  Emperor  Constantine. 

This  was  followed  up  by  other  similar  forgeries,  until 
at  last  an  actual  beginning  of  temporal  power,  first  de- 
pendent, and  finally  independent,  was  made.  After  this  it 
was  extended  by  war  and  treachery  to  its  present  extent. 

The  pope  is  now  elected  by  a  college  of  cardinals,  who 
are  princes  in  the  Papal  state  and  next  in  honor  to  the 
pope.  From  them  alone  can  he  be  chosen.  Was  it  al- 
ways thus?  I  answer,  No.  We  can  trace  back  this  part 


236        THE  »PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

of  the  system  until  it  entirely  disappears,  and  can  point 
out  its  fraudulent  and  unauthorized  origin. 

The  bishops  of  the  Romish  church  are  now  bound  to 
the  pope  by  a  feudal  oath,  which  plainly  betrays  itself  as  a 
product  of  the  middle  ages.  "We  can  trace  this,  too,  back 
till  it  disappears,  and  we  come  to  a  time  when  every 
bishop  in  Europe,  Asia,  and  Africa  would  have  denounced 
with  indignation  the  demand  of  any  such  oath  as  an  act 
of  impious  and  unparalleled  usurpation  of  authority. 

The  pope  has  now  supreme  judicial  authority.  No 
bishop,  no  synod,  has  ultimate  jurisdiction.  An  appeal 
may  be  taken  from  them  all  to  Rome.  We  can  trace  this 
part  also  of  the  system  back  to  the  time  when  the  supreme 
judicial  authority  of  the  pope  wholly  disappears,  and  each 
local  church  with  its  rulers  was  entirely  independent  of 
every  other.  The  idea  of  an  appeal  from  the  decision  of 
particular  churches  to  synods  was  at  length  introduced  ; 
but  even  after  this  the  idea  of  a  universal  appeal  to 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  was  repudiated  with  the  utmost  de- 
cision. Indeed  by  the  first  general  council,  A.  D.  325,  it 
was  absolutely  and  definitely  forbidden.  The  existing 
judicial  power  of  the  pope  was  obtained  by  forgery. 

At  the  present  time,  too,  the  pope  has  the  power  of 
making  laws  and  prescribing  usages  for  the  whole  church. 
He  also  is  invested  with  supreme  executive  power.  "We 
can  trace  these  parts  of  the  system  also  back  till  they 
disappear.  We  can  discover,  too,  the  very  forgeries 
by  which  the  present  state  of  things  was  brought  into 
existence. 

The  pope,  moreover,  now  claims  supremacy  on  the  ground 
of  the  assumed  fact  that  Peter  was  appointed  the  prince 
of  the  apostles  and  the  head  and  ruler  of  the  church. 
We  can  trace  this  claim  also  back  to  a  time  in  which 


ARGUMENT  FROM   HISTORY.  237 

those  who  are  now  absurdly  called  the  early  Popes  of 
Rome  were  utterly  ignorant  of  this  doctrine  and  made  no 
such  claim ;  and  we  can  show  how  after  four  or  five 
centuries  the  idea  was  introduced  and  how  it  was  made 
to  triumph  by  falsehood  and  fraud. 

The  doctrine  also  as  to  the  infallible  authority  of  a 
general  council  under  the  pope  can  be  traced  back  till  it 
utterly  disappears,  together  with  the  very  idea  of  such  a 
council. 

Moreover,  when  the  idea  of  calling  such  a  council  was 
originated,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  neither  called  it,  presided 
in  it,  nor  confirmed  and  gave  authority  to  its  decrees.  His 
right  to  do  all  these  things  has  been  since  usurped  by 
falsehood  and  fraud. 

The  law  of  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  which  is  one  main 
pillar  of  the  Papacy,  can  also  be  thus  traced  back  till  it 
disappears.  The  same  is  true  of  the  doctrine  of  auricular 
confession  —  that  great  engine  of  Papal  and  priestly  des- 
potism. 

So  also  the  doctrines  of  transubstantiation,  purgatory, 
saint  and  image  worship,  and  the  whole  system  of  sacra- 
mental regeneration  and  sanctification  can  be  traced  back 
till  they  vanish,  and  the  last  fragment  of  Romanism,  either 
in  doctrine  or  in  government,  utterly  disappears. 

The  creation  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  Romanism 
was  not  so  entirely  effected  by  forgery  as  was  the  existing 
Papal  corporation  and  form  of  goverment ;  and,  as  this  is 
the  central  power  of  the  system,  my  main  purpose  calls 
for  a  more  particular  exposure  of  this. 

It  is  well  for  the  community  that  this  is  a  mere  question 
of  historical  fact.  It  is  a  question  of  unspeakable  interest, 
not  only  to  our  country,  but  to  the  world.  If  the  Papal 
corporation  is  a  fraud,  created  by  unprincipled  forgery, 
then  it  is  a  conspiracy  against  the  welfare  of  the  human 


238        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

race  which  deserves  the  highest  possible  detestation.  God 
only,  the  Infinite,  the  Almighty,  can  adequately  express  the 
abhorrence  that  it  deserves. 

When  we  consider  its  arrogant  claims,  when  we  trace 
its  history,  when  we  contemplate  the  oceans  of  blood  that 
it  has  shed  simply  for  the  alleged  crime  of  denying  and 
repudiating  its  claims,  the  mind  of  man  is  appalled,  and 
fails  at  the  magnitude  of  the  guilt  involved ;  nor  does  it 
find  relief  till  it  falls  back  on  the  idea  of  an  almighty 
Judge.  He  can  arouse  the  mind  of  humanity  to  under- 
take this  mighty  judgment,  and  he  can  uphold  and 
strengthen  them  in  its  execution. 

( Indeed  his  word  contains  a  call  to  the  friends  of  God 
and  man  to  engage  in  this  work,  and  his  providence  coin- 
cides in  summoning  the  nations  to  the  judgment.  Our 
country  especially  is  called  on  to  lead  the  way. 


CHAPTER  III. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMISH  CORPORATION. 

THERE  is  to  be,  as  I  have  said,  an  historical  day  of 
judgment.  God  has  come  on  burning  wheels  ;  fiery  flames 
precede  him  ;  the  thrones  are  set,  the  books  are  opened, 
and  the  Romish  corporation  and  their  head  are  summoned 
before  his  bar  to  answer  for  their  arrogant  pretences  and 
bloody  deeds. 

Let  us,  then,  open  the  pages  of  the  book  of  history  be- 
fore the  bar  of  this  almighty  and  impartial  Judge,  and 
listen  to  their  testimony  against  the  corporation  of  Rome. 

The  time  covered  by  the  claim  of  the  Romish  corpora- 
tion includes  nearly  nineteen  centuries.  They  exhibit  to 
the  world  an  unbroken  line  of  popes,  stretching  across 
this  vast  tract  of  time,  and  terminating,  as  they  allege, 
with  Peter  at  Rome. 

To  unlearned  Romanists,  and  to  others  who  know  what 
the  pope  now  is,  it  appears  as  if  the  Papal  leaders  taught 
that  a  line  of  such  popes  extended  back  to  that  time. 
Such,  we  do  not  doubt,  is  the  impression  which  they  mean 
to  convey. 

If  the  history  of  this  long  period  were  familiarly  known, 
such  a  claim  would  appear  little  less  than  ridiculous  insan 
ity,  if  its  impiety  did  not  eclipse  every  other  consideration. 
But  there  is  no  popular  knowledge  of  this  period,  and 
therefore  no  ability  to  treat  such  a  claim  as  it  deserves. 

(239) 


240        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Of  course  it  is  not  possible  within  my  limits  to  give  so 
extended  a  history  in  full ;  but  I  can  with  ease  make  some 
general  statements  which  will  dissipate  the  Papal  delusion 
to  which  I  have  adverted  and  place  the  great  facts  of  the 
case  in  a  true  light. 

Bishop  Kenrick,  of  Philadelphia,  has  given  us  a  list  of 
two  hundred  and  fifty  persons,  called  popes,  who  are  said 
to  have  reigned  during  this  time,  ending  with  Gregory 
XVI.  Daunou,  a  French  Catholic,  has  also  given  us  a  list 
of  two  hundred  and  sixty-three,  terminating  with  the  same 
pope.  Bishop  Kenrick  says  that  "  the  number  varies  ac- 
cording as  certain  individuals  are  considered  intruders  or 
lawful  popes."  (Primacy,  p.  488.)  It  appears,  then,  that 
Romanists  are  not  always  agreed  who  are  the  true  popes. 
The  bishop  says,  "  It  is  a  matter  for  critical  inquiry."  This 
I  think  any  one  will  concede  who  attempts  to  look  into 
the  matter.  To  settle  all  questions  involved  in  the  Papal 
schisms  and  the  claims  of  anti-popes  will  require  a  very 
critical  inquiry,  and  at  the  best  lead  to  very  doubtful  re- 
sults, as  is  plain  from  the  divisions  of  Romanists  on  the 
subject. 

But  this  long  list  of  popes  may  be  divided-  into  six 
classes,  according  to  the  state  of  the  civil  governments  of 
the  world. 

The  first  class  includes  those  who  were  under  the  Ro- 
man empire  for  three  centuries  before  the  conversion  of 
Constantino  to  Christianity.  Of  these  thirty-two  are 
given  by  Kenrick  and  Daunou,  up  to  Sylvester,  by  whom, 
as  we  are  told  by  certain  notorious  Roman  forgers,  Con- 
stantine  was  baptized,  and  to  whom,  the  same  forgers  tell 
us,  he  gave  his  palace,  Rome,  and  the  Empire  of  the  West. 

The  second  class  includes  those  who  were  under  the  Ro- 
man empire  from  the  conversion  of  Constantino  till  its  down- 
fall in  476  —  a  space  of  nearly  two  centuries.  Of  these 


FORMATION  OP  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  241 

there  are  given  thirteen  by  Daunou  and  Kenrick,  includ- 
ing Leo  L,  soon  after  whom  Rome  fell. 

Though  Pope  Leo  I.  died  fifteen  years  before  the  fall 
of  Rome,  yet  I  select  him  because  he  was  the  leading 
spirit  of  that  age,  and  the  master  builder  who  first  made 
Peter  the  basis  of  the  Roman  claim  of  supremacy  of  juris- 
diction and  spiritual  power. 

In  these  two  periods  lived  the  early  Christian  writers 
commonly  known  as  the  fathers  —  as,  for  example,  Augus- 
tine, Bishop  of  Hippo,  Chrysostom,  Bishop  of  Constanti- 
nople, Ambrose,  Bishop  of  Milan.  Of  these  the  see  of 
Rome  furnished  none  except  Leo  just  before  the  city  fell. 

The  third  class  consists  of  those  who  were  under  the 
government  of  the  barbarian  conquerors  of  Rome,  or  of 
the  Emperors  of  Constantinople  when  they  reconquered 
Rome,  until  the  revival  of  the  Empire  of  the  "West  by 
Charlemagne  in  the  year  800  —  a  space  of  three  centuries 
and  a  quarter.  Of  these  fifty-two  are  given  by  Kenrick 
and  fifty-one  by  Daunou,  including  Leo  III.,  by  whom 
Charlemagne  was  crowned. 

In  this  period  there  were  a  few  writers  in  the  first  cen- 
tury, of  whom  Pope  Gregory,  called  the  Great,  is  chief. 
The  last  two  centuries  from  600  were  the  beginning  of  the 
midnight  of  the  dark  ages. 

The  fourth  class  consists  of  those  who  lived  between 
Charlemagne,  A.  D.  800,  and  the  celebrated  Gregory  VII., 
A.  D.  1073-85,  called  sometimes  Hildebrand,  and  regarded 
as  the  Napoleon  of  the  Romish  corporation.  Of  these 
sixty-four  are  enumerated  by  Daunou  and  fifty-six  by 
Kenrick. 

During  this  period  no  great  writers  meet  us.     "We  are 

still  in  the  midnight  of  the  dark  ages,  notwithstanding 

a  transient  gleam  of  light  around  Charlemagne.     These 

last  two  periods  are  the  ages  of  forgery  and  fraud.    Soon 

21 


242        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

after  1000,  however,  the  period  of  the  scholastic  divines 
opened.  There  we  see  Anselm,  Lanfranck,  Abelard. 

The  fifth  class  includes  the  popes  from  Gregory  VII.  to 
the  reformation  under  Leo  X.,  A.  D.  1514.  This  period 
extends  through  about  four  centuries,  and  contains  sixty 
popes  according  to  Kenrick,  and  sixty-six  according  to 
Daunou. 

This  is  by  way  of  eminence  the  Papal  period.  In  it  the 
existing  corporation  of  Rome  was  first  fully  organized  on 
foundations  and  of  materials  previously  forged.  In  it  the 
peculiar  doctrines  of  Romanism  which  are  the  sinews  of 
its  power  and  the  sources  of  profit  were  fully  developed 
and  established.  This  is  the  period  of  the  crusades  and  of 
scholastic  divinity  ;  this,  too,  is  the  period  of  Papal  art. 

The  sixth  class  extends  from  the  reformation  to  the 
present  day,  —  a  period  of  about  three  centuries  and  a 
half, —  and  contains  thirty-eight  popes  according  to  both 
Kenrick  and  Daunou.  In  this  period  began  the  great 
work  of  exposing  the  forgeries  and  frauds  of  Rome1,  which 
is  yet  to  be  completed. 

It  has  been  a  period  of  intense  intellectual  activity ; 
especially  has  it  been  remarkable  as  an  age  of  historical 
and  critical  development.  The  study  of  history  was  once 
confined  to  the  leading  few  ;  it  has  during  this  period 
descended  more  and  more  to  the  people.  We,  as  a  nation 
of  self-governing  freemen,  above  all  others  need  to  be  well 
versed  in  history,  and  especially  in  the  history  of  that 
corporation  whose  origin  and  formation  it  is  my  purpose 
now  to  illustrate  in  a  survey  of  the  divisions  which  have 
been  made. 

To  impress  this  division  more  strongly  upon  the  mind, 
and  to  aid  the  power  of  conception  when  I  shall  speak  of 
the  history  of  the  Papal  corporation,  I  here  present  a  sim- 
ple chart  of  the  period  and  of  its  divisions. 


CLASSIFICATION  OF  THE  POPES  FROM  CHRIST 
TO  THIS  DAY. 


A.D.   Augustus. 

Christ. 

100 
200 

M 

to 

o 

300  Constantino. 

1 

Sylvester. 

400 

500  Rome  falls. 

.  —  -. 

Leo  I. 

600 

700 

•/" 

800  Charlemagne. 
900 

0 
fcD 
E 
O 

LeoIH. 

1000 

1100  Henry  IY. 

=—  « 

Gregory  YII. 

1200 

E 

o 

Innocent  m. 

1300 
1400 

tc 
fe 

Boniface  VIII, 

1500  Charles  Y.               Luther.            Leo  X. 

1600                                   f  g  j 
1700                                  j  |  [- 
1800                                     [f§J               Pius  IX. 

(243) 

244        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

For  the  sake  of  symmetry  and  convenience,  I  place  the 
name  of  Constantino  upon  the  year  300,  though  he  began 
to  reign  about  a  quarter  of  a  century  later  ;  so  also  I 
place  the  fall  of  Home  on  500,  though  it  was  on  476  ;  and 
Gregory  VII.  on  1100,  though  he  reigned  A.  D.  1073-85  j 
and  Leo  X.  on  1500,  though  he  reigned  a  little  later. 
I  wish  simply  to  impress  the  great  outlines  of  the  division. 
I  also  place  Sylvester  with  Constantino,  Henry  IV.  of 
Germany  with  Gregory  VII.,  and  Luther  and  Charles  V. 
with  Leo  X.  for  similar  reasons.  Into  the  fifth  period  I 
introduce,  on  1200  and  1300,  Innocent  III.  and  Boniface 
VIII.  for  reasons  soon  to  be  stated. 


THE  DELUSION. 

The  delusion  which  the  Romish  corporation  leaves  upon 
the  minds  of  the  ignorant  masses  of  the  Romanists  is  now 
apparent.  It  is  that  the  Romish  corporation  stretches 
back  through  this  vast  tract  of  time  just  as  it  is  till  it 
reaches  the  throne  of  Peter,  the  great  prince  of  the 
apostles. 

"Words  cannot  express  the  magnitude  and  extent  of  the 
falsehood  involved  in  this  impression  and  how  utterly 
unlike  it  is  to  the  real  course  of  events. 

I  will  try  briefly  to  flash  out  these  ideas  by  a  simple 
and  significant  illustration. 

If,  when  standing  in  St.  Peter's  or  the  Vatican,  some 
intelligent  traveller  should  ask  who  erected  these  splen- 
did structures,  and  be  told  the  holy  apostles  Peter  and 
Paul ;  they  fixed  on  Rome  as  the  centre  of  the  empire 
of  Christ,  and,  knowing  the  importance  of  a  central 
church  and  a  palace  of  suitable  splendor,  they  laid  out 
the  plans  of  the  buildings,  collected  the  masons,  gathered 


FOEMATION   OP  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  245 

contributions  from  the  whole  Christian  world,  and  thus 
erected  the  church  and  the  palace  ;  Peter  fixed  his  seat 
here,  sat  on  his  throne  in  this  church ;  and  the  throne 
on  which  the  pope  now  sits  in  state  is  the  very  one 
on  which  the  apostle  Peter  used  to  sit,  and  in  this  pal- 
ace he  once  lived  in  royal  splendor,  —  he  would  not  hes- 
itate to  call  the  whole  story  an  audacious  lie.  Do  I  not 
know,  he  would  say,  that  the  thing  is,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  absurd  and  impossible  ?  Was  not  Rome  the  very 
centre  of  the  resistless  power  of  the  Roman  empire  ? 
Was  not  the  palace  of  the  CaBsars  there  ?  Was  it  not  the 
centre  of  Roman  polytheism  ?  Was  it  not  the  abode  of 
the  Pontifex  Maximus  ?  Were  not  all  of  these  vast  pow- 
ers arrayed  in  deadly  conflict  with  the  religion  of  Christ  ? 
Was  not  that  the  age  of  persecution  and  martyrdom  ? 
Were  not  the  first  Christians,  as  a  general  fact,  poor  and 
unlearned  ?  Was  it  not  true,  as  Paul  says,  not  many 
wise,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble  were  called  ? 
And  was  not  Paul  carried  a  prisoner  to  Rome  ?  and  did  he 
not  at  last  die  there  as  a  martyr  ?  And  did  not  Peter, 
too,  die  a  martyr's  death  on  the  cross  ?  And  are  these 
the  times  and  these  the  men  to  erect  such  a  church  and 
such  a  palace,  before  the  eyes  of  the  emperor,  in  the  very 
centre  of  persecuting  Rome  ?  Then,  opening  some  authen- 
tic book  of  history,  he  would  find  the  time  when  in  fact 
these  structures  were  commenced,  the  persons  by  whom 
and  the  means  by  which  they  were  continued  and  com- 
pleted, and,  by  a  statement  of  the  truth,  cover  his  false 
informers  with  shame  and  infamy. 

And  yet  frauds  infinitely  greater  have  been  practised 

or  indorsed  by  that  corporation  of  bishops  centralized 

by  the  pope,  and  they  are  not  yet  covered  with  shame 

and  infamy  ;  nay,  they  still  claim,  in  the  name  of  God, 

21* 


246        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

supreme  spiritual  authority  over  the  human  race  ;  and  to 
them  we  are  now  referred  as  our  only  sure  guides  in  the 
discovery  of  truth,  and  as  the  only  medium  through  which 
we  can  reach  heaven. 

Nor  is  this  all.  They  have  shed  the  blood  of  millions 
for  denying  these  claims  ;  and  this  Mr.  Brownson  now 
defends  as  only  an  exercise  of  legitimate  authority.  Nor 
is  this  all.  He  claims  a  supremacy  for  the  institutions  of 
this  corporation  over  our  national  institutions  on  the 
ground  that  what  is  of  man  must  give  way  before  what 
is  of  God. 

Let  us,  then,  consider  in  the  light  of  history  the  actual 
process  in  the  formation  of  the  Romish  corporation. 
The  fabric  of  this  corporation,  as  it  now  stands,  may  be 
compared  to  St.  Peter's  Church  at  Rome.  As  that  in  its 
magnitude  exceeds  all  other  churches,  so  is  this  the  great- 
est fabric  of  ecclesiastical  architecture  ever  known  on 
earth.  The  pope,  the  cardinals,  the  patriarchs,  the  me- 
tropolitans, the  bishops,  the  priests,  the  deacons  are  all 
organized  in  a  vast  system,  extending  itself  over  the 
globe  and  aiming  at  universal  conquest.  In  it  are  the 
various  orders  of  monks,  nuns,  Jesuits,  bound  to  it  by 
oaths  and  sworn  to  extend  its  sway. 

When  was  the  fabric  erected  ?  By  whom  ?  How  ? 
How  did  the  pope  gain  his  powers  and  become  the  centre 
of  such  a  system  ?  To  these  questions  but  two  answers 
can  be  given.  The  first,  that  of  Rome  —  God  thus  ordained 
from  the  beginning.  The  other  I  have  given  —  it  is  a 
stupendous  fraud  of  the  devil.  Look,  then,  at  the  first 
centuries — days  of  persecution,  weakness,  martyrdom. 
Is  it  not  on  the  face  of  things  as  absurd  to  think  it  then 
put  up  by  the  apostles  as  to  think  that  Paul  and  Peter 
built  St.  Peter's  Church  and  the  Vatican  ? 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  247 


FIRST  CLASS  OF  POPES. 

Where,  then,  was  the  temporal  power  of  the  pope 
•when  the  palace  of  the  Caesars  was  at  Rome,  when  Paul 
died  there  as  a  martyr,  when  persecution  after  persecution 
filled  the  empire  with  the  blood  of  the  slain  ? 

Where,  then,  was  the  body  of  cardinal  princes  clothed 
in  scarlet  ?  Where  the  oath  to  obey  the  pope  ?  Where 
his  supreme  judicial,  legislative,  and  executive  authority  ? 
Whore  were  the  general  councils  ?  Where  the  canon 
law  ?  What  single  part  of  the  present  great  fabric  can 
be  found  there  ?  Not  one.  Mr.  Newman  is  forced  to 
confess  that  the  existing  system  was  not  then  erected  ; 
not  a  particle  of  it  could  be  seen.  And  history,  with 
irresistible  power,  repudiates  every  claim  of  Rome.  All 
churches  were  then  equal  and  independent ;  neither  they 
nor  their  pastors  claimed  authority  over  each  other. 
There  was  then  no  corporation  of  any  kind  in  existence. 
It  was  nearly  two  centuries  before  they  even  began  to  act 
together  in  synods. 

All  this  is  notorious,  and  is  conceded  by  all  church 
historians  of  any  candor.  But  it  is  of  still  greater  mo- 
ment that  it  can  be  proved  to  have  been  the  view  held  at 
Rome,  where  the  Romanists  assure  us  that  Peter,  the 
prince  of  the  apostles,  the  great  head  of  the  church,  had 
established  his  see  and  transferred  his  power  to  his  suc- 
cessors, who,  if  these  assertions  are  true,  must  have  had 
some  knowledge  of  the  fact. 


248  THE  PAPAL  CONSPIBACY  EXPOSED. 


CLEMENT'S  LETTER. 

After  Peter,  if  we  may  trust  tradition,  came  Linus, 
and  then  Cletus,  or  Anacletus.  Of  these  two  little  or 
nothing  is  known  or  said.  Then  comes  a  real  person 
and  a  writer  well  known  —  Clement,  son  of  Faustinus,  a 
Roman.  He  was  really  the  pastor  of  the  church  of  Rome. 
According  to  Origen,  Eusebius,  and  all  the  ancients,  says 
Bower,  he  is  the  person  whom  Paul,  in  his  Epistle  to  the 
Philippians,  names  among  those  who  had  labored  with 
him  in  the  gospel  and  whose  names  were  in  the  book  of 
life.  From  him  there  has  come  down  to  us  one  true  and 
genuine  epistle. 

It  is  also  a  long  epistle.  Moreover  it  is  an  epistle  on 
a  subject  directly  adapted  to  bring  out  the  Papal  prerog- 
atives of  Clement,  if  he  had  any.  The  epistle  informs  us 
that  the  church  of  Corinth  had  deposed  some  of  their 
presbyters  and  were  in  a  state  of  painful  division. 
Clement  and  the  church  at  Rome  deemed  this  deposition 
groundless  in  view  of  the  statements  of  the  church  at 
Corinth  which  had  been  laid  before  them  for  advice. 
Have  we  not  here  a  test  question  ?  If  Clement,  the  fel- 
low-laborer of  Paul,  the  contemporary  of  Peter,  had 
known  even  the  A  B  C  of  the  present  Papal  system, 
would  he  not  at  once  have  commanded  the  church  at  Cor- 
inth, in  the  name  of  Almighty  God  and  of  the  blessed 
apostles  Peter  and  Paul,  and  on  peril  of  their  wrath,  to 
restore  these  deposed  presbyters  ? 

Did  he  do  it  ?  Nay  ;  he  did  no  such  thing.  On  the  oth- 
er hand,  he  conceded  that  the  Corinthian  church  had  not 
exceeded  their  legal  power  and  that  he  had  no  power 
over  them  ;  but  he  tried  to  convince  them  that  they  had 
exercised  their  power  unjustly  and  to  persuade  them  to 


FORMATION  OP  THE  ROMISH  CORPORATION.     249 

restore  the  deposed  bishops.  He  tells  them  that  the  de- 
posed bishops  had  been  properly  chosen  by  the  whole 
church,  and  had  long  served  the  flock  of  Christ  humbly, 
quietly,  liberally,  without  censure,  and  with  a  good  repu- 
tation among  all.  "These,"  says  he,  "we  think  cannot  be 
justly  deposed  from  their  office  ;  for  it  will  be  no  small 
sin  to  depose  from  their  office  as  bishops  those  who  have 
performed  their  duties  holily  and  without  reproach." 

Nor  is  this  the  whole  strength  of  the  case.  Clement 
does  not  even  speak  in  his  own  name  at  all.  He  sinks 
himself  out  of  sight.  He  speaks  simply  as  the  mouth  of 
the  church  of  Rome. 

Let  us  compare  the  opening  of  the  bull  of  Pius  Y.  in 
which  he  announced  the  excommunication  and  damnation 
of  Elizabeth,  Queen  of  England,  with  the  opening  of  the 
letter  of  Clement :  — 

"  Pius,  bishop,  servant  of  the  servants  of  God  :  for  a 
perpetual  memorial  of  the  matter.  He  that  reigneth  on 
high,  to  whom  is  given  all  power  in  heaven  and  in  earth, 
committed  one  holy  Catholic  church,  out  of  which  there 
is  no  salvation,  to  one  alone  on  earth  —  namely,  to  Peter, 
the  prince  of  the  apostles,  and  to  Peter's  successor,  the 
Bishop  of  Rome,  to  be  governed  in  fulness  of  power,"  &c. 

Clement  begins  his  letter  thus  :  — 

"  The  church  of  God  dwelling  at  Rome  to  the  church 
of  God  dwelling  at  Corinth,  called  and  sanctified  by  the 
divine  will  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  :  grace  and 
peace  be  multiplied  to  you  by  Almighty  God,  through 
Jesus  Christ." 

The  writer  then  proceeds  to  praise  the  Corinthians  for 
their  former  good  conduct  and  to  exhort  them  to  heal 
their  divisions  and  to  restore  their  deposed  bishops.  His 
motives  are  derived  from  the  examples  of  other  ages  and 
from  the  words  of  Scripture.  The  government  of  the 


250         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Corinthian  church  was  plainly  in  the  hands  of  the  people, 
and  all  that  the  Roman  church  did  was  to  advise  and 
exhort. 

So  plain  is  this  case  that  Waddington,  an  Episcopal  his- 
torian, says  of  the  church  in  Corinth,  "  The  Episcopal 
form  of  government  was  clearly  not  yet  here  established." 
It  is  no  less  plain  that,  if  there  was  a  bishop  at  Rome,  he 
was  not  a  modern  pope.  He  says  nothing  of  Peter's  see, 
nothing  of  himself,  nothing  of  the  wrath  of  Almighty 
God  and  the  blessed  apostles  Paul  and  Peter  on  all  in  the 
church  of  Corinth  who  will  not  obey  his  bull.  Neither 
he  nor  the  church  claim  any  other  power  or  authority  than 
that  of  Christian  advice,  expostulation,  and  exhortation. 
And  yet  the  case  was  one  of  great  moment  and  of  great 
urgency,  as  is  evident  from  the  very  nature  of  the  facts 
stated  and  from  the  earnest  entreaties  of  the  letter. 

I  know  not  how  a  more  pointed  repudiation  of  all  the 
present  claims  of  the  Papacy  could  have  been  made. 

How  little  this  letter  is  adapted  to  meet  the  ideas  of 
the  Romish  corporation  will  soon  become  plain  when  we 
shall  come  to  consider  certain  letters  afterwards  forged 
by  them  in  the  name  of  Clement  in  order  to  accomplish 
their  ambitious  ends.  They,  in  their  forgeries,  make 
Clement  speak  to  some  purpose.  The  whole  story  as  to 
Peter  is  at  his  tongue's  end. 

The  strength  of  this  case  cannot  be  over-estimated. 
Bower  well  remarks,  "  Had  he  known  himself  to  be  the  un- 
erring judge  of  controversies,  there  had  been  no  room  for 
persuasions  :  he  ought  to  have  exercised  his  power  and  put 
an  end  to  all  disputes  in  the  peremptory  style  of  his  succes- 
sors." So  much  for  Pope  Clement. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMISH  CORPORATION.  251 


PIUS  I. 

Let  us  pass  over  Popes  Evaristus,  Alexander  I.,  Six- 
tus  I.,  Telesphorus,  and  Hyginus,  of  whom  very  little 
is  known,  and  come  to  Pius  L,  A.  D.  142-157.  Under 
him  occurred  another  event  which  completely  annihilates 
all  the  pretensions  of  the  Papal  corporation.  Marcion,  of 
Sinope,  had  been  excommunicated  from  the  church  of  his 
father,  a  bishop  of  the  Catholic  communion,  for  certain 
grave  offences.  He  fled  to  Rome  and  prayed  to  be  ad- 
mitted to  their  communion.  The  church  of  Rome  told 
him,  as  Epiphanius  testifies,  "  We  cannot  admit  you  with- 
out leave  from  your  holy  father ;  NOR  CAN  WE,  AS  WE 

ARE  ALL  UNITED  IN  THE  SAME  FAITH  AND  THE  SAME  SEN- 
TDIEXTS,  UNDO  WHAT  OUR  HOLY  COLLEAGUE,  YOUR  HOLY 
FATHER,  HAS  DONE." 

Can  any  thing  be  more  decisive  than  this  fact  ?  Is  not 
this  an  absolute  and  direct  disavowal  of  the  supremacy 
claimed  by  the  Papists  for  the  church  of  Rome  ?  Is  it  not 
an  avowal  of  the  doctrine  that  all  churches  are  equal  and 
independent,  and  that  no  one  has  a  right  to  overrule  or 
reverse  the  decision  of  another  ?  This  was  in  the  middle 
of  the  second  century,  and  proves  that  up  to  that  time 
the  primitive  equality  of  the  churches  was  fully  acknowl- 
edged and  avowed  even  at  Rome.  The  incursions  of 
clerical  ambition  had  not  then  begun. 

On  this  narrative  Bower  keenly  remarks,  "  Had  Bellar 
mine  lived  in  those  days  he  had  taught  them  another  doc- 
trine, —  a  doctrine  which,  however  necessary,  the  apostles 
had  forgot  to  deliver  to  their  disciples, — viz.,  that  the  see  of 
Rome  was  raised  above  all  other  sees ;  that  the  appeals 
of  the  whole  Catholic  church  were  to  be  brought  to  it ; 
that  no  appeals  were  to  be  made  from  it ;  that  it  was  to 


252        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

judge  of  the  whole  church^  but  be  judged  by  none.  Mar- 
cion  did  not  apply  to  Pius,  or  at  least  to  him  alone,  but  to 
the  elders,  who  disclaimed  all  power  of  reversing  the 
sentence  of  a  particular  bishop.  And  is  not  this  an  evi- 
dent and  incontestable  proof  that  the  power  of  receiving 
appeals  was  not  known  or  thought  of  in  those  days  ?  " 

The  next  pope,  Anicetus,  and  Polycarp,  Bishop  of  Smyr- 
na, differed  as  to  the  time  of  the  celebration  of  Easter,  and 
could  not  convince  each  other  ;  but  the  pope  did  not  com- 
mand, nor  Polycarp  obey,  but  each  followed  "his  own 
opinions.  Passing  by  Soter  and  Eleutherius,  we  come  to 
Victor,  A.  D.  192-201. 


ROMAN  ARROGANCE  DEVELOPED. 

Here  we  meet  the  first  manifestation  of  episcopal  arro- 
gance in  the  Bishop  of  Rome  ;  and  now  a  course  of  events 
opens  upon  us  of  this  kind.  Claims  are  made  by  the 
Romish  bishops  and  repudiated  by  the  churches  at  large, 
but  persevered  in  by  their  successors  and  referred  back  to 
as  precedents.  Hallam  remarks  as  to  such  claims,  "  In  the 
history  of  all  usurping  governments  time  changes  anomaly 
into  system  and  injury  into  right ;  examples  beget  custon^ 
and  custom  r-ipens  into  law  ;  and  the  doubtful  precedent 
of  one  generation  becomes  the  fundamental  maxim  of 
another." 

In  the  case  of  Victor,  we  see  the  first  effort  of  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  to  exert  a  power  of  making  law  for  the 
churches.  Not  following  the  example  of  Anicetus  in  the 
case  of  Polycarp,  he  undertook  to  impose  the  Roman  view 
of  Easter  on  Polycrates  and  the  Bishops  of  Asia  Minor, 
and  excommunicated  them  for  refusing  to  conform.  But 
the  other  churches  of  the  Christian  world  repudiated  this 


FORMATION  OP  THE  ROMISH  CORPORATION.     253 

arrogant  proceeding  and  rendefed  it  null  and  void.  Thus 
it  is  not  until  the  end  of  the  second  century  that  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  put  forth  claims  to  jurisdiction  over  other 
churches,  and  then  they  were  universally  repudiated. 
Passing  by  Zephyrinus,  Callistus,  Urbanus,  Pontianus, 
A.nterus,  Fabianus,  Cornelius,  and  Lucius,  we  come  to 
Stephen,  who  made  an  effort  like  that  of  Victor  to  ex- 
communicate Cyprian  and  a  council  of  African  bishops 
for  refusing  to  adopt  his  views  of  the  baptism  of  heretics. 
This  also  was  repudiated  and  rendered  powerless  by  the 
other  churches  of  the  age. 

Passing  over  Sixtus  II.,  Dionysius,  Felix,  Eutychianus, 
Caius,  Marcellinus,  Marcellus,  Eusebius,  and  Melchiades, 
we  come  to  Sylvester,  by  whom  Constantino  was  said  by 
the  Roman  forgers  to  have  been  baptized. 

Thus  it  appears  that  in  the  first  century,  and  up  to  the 
middle  of  the  second,  the  Papal  system  not  only  did  not 
exist  at  Rome,  but  was  distinctly  repudiated  and  de- 
nounced. Nor  up  to  the  time  of  Constantine  can  any  evi- 
dence be  found  of  any  admitted  authority  of  the  church 
or  Pope  of  Rome  over  the  other  churches.  All  that  we 
discover  is  an  effort  of  a  few  popes  to  assert  such  "author- 
ity, which  was  at  once  and  indignantly  repudiated. 

It  appears  that  though  the  bishops  of  the  churches  ad- 
vised with  and  consulted  each  other  and  met  in  synods 
during  the  third  century,  yet  they  were  all  regarded  as 
equal  and  independent. 

This  view  of  the  case  is  very  strongly  confirmed  by  a 
forgery  which  was  made  towards  the  close  of  the  third 
century,  designed  to  give  authority  and  system  to  the  gov- 
ernment, rites,  and  usages  of  the  churches  at  that  time. 
It  is  called  the  Apostolic  Constitutions  and  Canons  ;  and 
it  aimed,  by  the  high  authority  of  the  apostles,  to  establish 
and  augment  the  power  of  each  bishop  in  his  own  church 

00 


254:        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

and  to  regulate  all  church  usages  by  definite  rules.  It  was 
made  in  the  names  of  all  the  apostles,  and  is  the  first  great 
systematic  and  regular  forgery  of  this  kind.  It  is  divided 
into  eight  books,  and  professes  fully  to  describe  the  pow- 
ers of  bishops,  and  of  all  the  clergy,  and  the  whole  order 
of  the  church.  But  it  is  a  most  significant  fact  that  in  it 
there  is  found  no  place  for  the  supremacy  of  the  pope  or 
of  the  church  of  Rome. 

It  introduces  all  the  apostles  by  name  in  the  eighth 
book,  and,  without  hinting  at  the  supremacy  of  Peter, 
represents  them  as  individually  ordaining  constitutions. 
Moreover  it  is  careful  to  represent  them  as  independent 
and  equal.  There  is  over  them  no  primate  or  prince.  It  is 
a  book  of  two  hundred  and  fifty-seven  octavo  pages  ;  and 
yet  it  may  be  searched  through  from  beginning  to  end  with- 
out finding  any  thing  that  in  the  least  degree  countenances 
the  existing  claims  of  the  Papal  corporation.  On  the 
other  hand,  we  find  in  it  the  same  views  of  the  independ- 
ent authority  and  equality  of  all  bishops,  and  of  the 
mode  in  which  they  ought  to  concur  in  church  unity,  which 
are  found  in  the  works  of  Cyprian. 

I  have  thus  finished  the  first  and  earliest  class  of  the  so 
called  popes.  Two  things  are  now  undeniable  :  the  first, 
that  the  testimony  of  this  class  is  the  most  important ;  the 
second,  that  the  testimony  of  the  earliest  popes  is  decisive 
against  all  the  claims  of  Rome. 

It  now  remains  that  I  show  how  these  claims  were  in- 
troduced and  that  the  whole  system  is  based  on  forgery 
and  fraud. 

In  order,  however,  to  understand  the  course  of  event?, 
it  is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  state  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire during  the  period  in  which  the  second  and  third 
classes  of  popes  lived. 

Any  history  will  inform  us  that  Constantine  founded 


FORMATION   OF  THE   ROMISH    CORPORATION. 

another  seat  of  empire  at  Byzantium,  greatly  enlarging 
and  adorning  the  original  city,  and  calling  it  the  city  of 
Constantine,  or  Constantinople. 

Afterwards  the  empire  was  divided  into  the  Western 
Empire,  of  which  Rome  was  the  capital ;  and  the  Eastern 
Empire,  of  which  Constantinople  was  the  capital. 

In  the  year  476  the  Western  Empire  fell,  being  con- 
quered by  Odoacer,  King  of  the  Heruli.  After  this,  till 
the  year  800,  Rome  was  sometimes  under  the  sway  of  the 
barbarians,  and  at  other  times  it  was  reconquered  from 
them  and  ruled  by  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople. 

Now,  with  regard  to  the  Bishops  of  Rome  during  both 
of  these  periods,  two  great  facts  are  prominent :  1.  They 
were  not  temporal  rulers  of  Rome  or  of  any  other  territo- 
ry, either  as  independent  or  as  dependent  sovereigns  ;  they 
were  subject  to  whatever  civil  power  ruled  Rome,  whether 
barbarian  or  Greek.  2.  Their  chief  contest  was  with  the 
Bishop  of  Constantinople  for  a  certain  kind  of  spiritual 
supremacy. 

In  order  to  see  how  this  came  to  pass,  let  us  look  at  the 
condition  of  the  second  class  of  the  popes  —  i.  e.,  the  Bish- 
ops of  Rome. 

After  the  conversion  of  Constantino  a  new  state  of  things 
was  introduced  among  the  bishops  at  large.  Christianity 
having  become  the  religion  of  the  empire,  the  churches 
were  favored  and  endowed  and  the  bishops  honored  and 
exalted  in  power.  In  addition  to  this,  they  were  regu- 
larly organized  into  hierarchal  combinations  according 
to  the  divisions  of  the  empire.  As  in  every  province  there 
was  a  chief  city  or  metropolis,  and  as  the  bishop  of  this 
city  had  already  been  appointed  metropolitan  bishop  to 
preside  over  the  others  even  in  the  third  century,  so  this 
system  was  confirmed  by  Constantine. 

Again  :  certain  provinces  were  united  around  the  largest 


256         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

cities  of  the  empire  into  patriarcliat.es,  and  the  bishops 
of  these  cities  were  appointed  patriarchs,  and  the  metro- 
politans and  other  bishops  were  subordinated  to  them. 
Thus,  around  Rome,  Constantinople,  Alexandria,  Antioch, 
and  Jerusalem,  after  some  changes,  were  patriarchates 
finally  formed,  and  their  bishops  became  rival  patriarchs. 

Of  these  bishops,  the  dignity  was  according  to  that  of 
the  city  in  which  their  see  was  located.  Of  course  the 
patriarch  of  old  Rome  stood  highest ;  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople  next ;  and  after  them  the  patriarchs  of  Al- 
exandria, Antioch,  and  Jerusalem. 

During  this  period  also  the  practice  of  calling  general 
councils  to  represent  the  whole  Christian  world  was  in- 
troduced. 

Concerning  this  period  three  things  deserve  special  no- 
tice :  1.  That  during  it  the  civil  authority  of  the  emperors 
over  the  bishops  was  supreme  ;  and  it  was  the  emperors, 
and  not  any  of  the  bishops,  who  called  the  general  coun- 
cils. 2.  In  these  general  councils  canons  were  made  di- 
rectly at  war  with  the  present  pretensions  of  the  Bishop 
of  Rome.  3.  At  the  close  of  this  period  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  was  in  imminent  danger  of  losing  the  basis  of  his 
superior  honor  and  influence  by  the  downfall  of  Rome,  and 
was  obliged  to  invent  a  new  basis  on  which  to  rest  his 
claims,  and  also  higher  claims  of  jurisdiction.  The  im- 
portance of  these  statements  will  become  more  clear  in 
view  of  the  following  narrative  of  facts. 

The  first  general  council  was  that  of  Nice,  A.  D.  325. 
This  was  called,  not  by  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  but  by  the 
Emperor  Constantine.  Nor  did  the  pope  or  his  legate 
preside  in  it.  Thus  are  all  his  present  claims  to  call  coun- 
cils and  preside  in  them  negatived. 

Again  :  the  fifth  canon  of  this  council  commanded  all 
ecclesiastical  causes  to  be  finally  decided  in  each  province 


FORMATION  OP  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  257 

by  a  provincial  synod  —  thus  cutting  up  by  the  roots  the 
present  claims  of  the  Pope  of  Rome  to  supreme  jurisdic- 
tion and  to  receive  appeals  in  all  cases  and  from  all  quar- 
ters. Against  this  even  Binius  makes  no  reply.  It  is 
true  that  after  this,  under  Pope  Julius,  a  small  provincial 
council  convened  in  Sardica,  the  metropolis  of  Dacia,  in 
Illyricum,  introduced  and  authorized  the  practice  of  ap- 
pealing to  the  Pope  of  Rome.  But  a  provincial  council 
cannot  lawfully  repeal  the  canons  of  a  general  council, 
the  Romish  corporation  being  judge.  Moreover,  under 
Damasus,  a  council  convened  by  the  Emperor  Theodosius 
at  Constantinople  expressed  their  disapprobation  of  the 
doings  of  the  council  of  Sardica  by  renewing  and  con- 
firming the  decision  of  the  council  of  Nice. 

The  Bishops  of  Rome,  in  fact,  confessed  the  insufficiency 
of  the  decree  of  the  council  of  Sardica  by  trying  to  palm 
it  off  as  a  decree  of  a  general  council.  It  was  Pope  Celes- 
tine  (A.  D.  422-32)  who  undertook  this  work  of  fraud. 
He  attempted  to  impose  upon  a  council  of  African  bish- 
ops the  canons  of  Sardica  as  being  canons  of  Nice,  in  or- 
der to  obtain  the  authority  of  that  general  council  for  his 
claim  to  the  right  of  receiving  appeals.  How  early  did 
Rome  begin  her  great  work  of  fraud !  The  African  bish- 
ops, however,  at  last  detected  the  imposition,  and  severally 
rebuked  the  successor  of  Celestine  for  the  unprincipled 
conduct  of  his  predecessor. 

Nor  is  this  all.  In  the  second  general  council  of  Con- 
stantinople it  was  decided  that  the  Bishop  of  Constan- 
tinople had  equal  rank  with  the  Bishop  of  Rome. 

In  the  fourth  general  council,  at  Chalcedon,  it  waa 
expressly  declared  that  the  peculiar  dignity  and  authority 
of  the  patriarchs  of  Rome  and  Constantinople  were  de- 
rived from  the  political  importance  of  the  capital  cities  of 
the  empire. 

22* 


258        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Here,  then,  we  see  the  first  three  general  councils  all 
fundamentally  at  war  with  the  present  pretensions  of 
Rome.  What  can  be  more  decisive  ?  Notice  in  particu- 
lar that  the  doctrine  of  the  council  of  Chalcedon  is  DI- 
KE CTLY  AT  WAR  WITH  THE  ROMISH  CLAIM  OF  SUPREMACY 
ON  THE  GROUND  OF  THE  SUPREMACY  OF  PETER. 

It  became  plain  also  that,  if  Rome  should  fall  and  Con- 
stantinople stand,  the  Bishop  of  Rome  must  also  fall  and 
the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  remain  supreme. 

It  was  plain  also  that  the  downfall  of  Rome  was  at 
hand.  Hence  it  became  imperatively  necessary  to  invent 
and  establish  a  new  basis  for  the  claims  of  the  Roman 
bishop  which  would  survive  that  downfall.  It  was  the 
province  of  Leo  L,  the  Great,  to  perform  this  work  by 
substituting  the  authority  of  Peter  for  the  dignity  of 
Rome.  Of  this  change  I  shall  elsewhere  speak  more  at 
large.  It  is  the  first  great  point  in  the  history  of  the 
Papacy. 

So  much  for  the  second  class  of  popes.  Let  us  pass  to 
the  third.  During  the  three  centuries  that  followed  the 
downfall  of  Rome,  the  ideas  of  Leo  as  to  Peter's  suprem- 
acy and  the  claims  of  the  pope  founded  thereon  were 
germinating  and  preparing  the  way  for  a  universal  spirit- 
ual empire  among  the  ignorant  and  credulous  barbarians. 
Meantime  three  of  the  Eastern  patriarchs  were  humbled 
by  the  onset  of  the  hosts  of  Mahomet  —  those  of  Alexan- 
dria, Antioch,  and  Jerusalem.  These  cities  fell  before  the 
invaders.  Constantinople  only  remained.  Meantime  new 
national  churches  in  Western  Europe  were  rising  in  the 
young  and  vigorous  kingdoms  founded  by  the  German 
conquerors  of  Rome.  Here  then,  as  soon  was  evident, 
was  to  be  the  field  of  the  spiritual  monarchy ;  for  Con- 
stantinople was  declining,  and  destined  at  last  to  fall. 
During  the  greater  part  of  this  period  Rome  was  subject 


FORMATION  OP  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  259 

to  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople,  but  was  so  far  distant, 
and  was  so  exposed  to  the  inroads  of  the  barbarians,  that 
it  threw  great  responsibilities  on  the  bishop,  and  sug- 
gested to  him  the  idea  of  a  temporal  as  well  as  a  spiritual 
monarchy. 

"We  now  come  to  the  fourth  class  of  popes.  After  the  vi- 
cissitudes of  the  last  period  and  the  weakening  of  the  East 
by  the  Mahometan  powers  a  new  centre  of  power  arises  in 
the  West.  The  old  Roman  empire  of  the  West,  that  for 
centuries  had  been  dead,  is  revived  once  more  ;  and  Charle- 
magne is  at  its  head,  crowned  by  Pope  Leo  III.  Charles 
Augustus,  Emperor  of  the  holy  Roman  empire. 

We  have  now  come  to  the  point  where  the  principle  of 
forgery  is  to  disclose  itself  in  all  its  magnitude  in  these 
ages  of  the  deepest  ignorance  until  the  two  great  concep- 
tions of  a  spiritual  and  temporal  monarchy  were  realized. 
Leo  I.  had  developed,  as  the  foundation  of  the  spiritual 
monarchy,  the  rock  Peter  ;  and  now  the  basis  of  the 
temporal  monarchy  was  laid  by  a  forged  donation  of  Con- 
stantine.  Moreover  the  plan  of  the  spiritual  monarchy 
was  drawn,  and  its  materials  provided,  and  an  effort  made 
to  erect  it.  By  the  fifth  class  of  popes  the  fabric  was 
erected  and  finished,  and  stood  in  great  power  till  the 
time  of  the  reformation.  Under  the  sixth  and  last  class 
of  popes  it  has  been  assailed  by  the  Protestants  for  three 
hundred  years.  In  this  assault  we  are  now  summoned 
anew  to  engage.  Nor  will  it  cease  till  the  whole  fabric 
is  utterly  burned  with  the  avenging  fires  of  God  Al- 
mighty. 

Let  us  now  approach  and  take  a  more  particular  view 
of  the  structure  of  the  fabric. 

At  the  time  of  Nicholas  I.,  A.  D.  858-867,  we  discover 
the  model  of  this  new  building  prepared  and  the  materials 
for  it  wrought  out.  Moreover  the  first  efforts  to  erect 
it  were  made  by  him. 


260        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

It  is  true  that  this  exercise  of  power  and  claim  of 
prerogatives  was  followed  by  a  period  of  great  Papal 
weakness  and  corruption  —  one  of  the  most  disgrace- 
ful in  the  history  of  the  Papacy.  The  power  of  the 
vigorous  German  emperors  was  needed  and  was  inter- 
posed to  correct  most  scandalous  abuses  and  immoralities 
and  to  regulate  the  head  of  the  church ;  and  for  a  time 
the  imperial  power  was  greatly  in  the  ascendant.  Still, 
however,  the  principles  and  claims  advanced  by  Nicholas, 
after  the  uniform  policy  of  the  popes,  were  never  with- 
drawn. They  were  precedents,  to  be  used  as  soon  as  cir- 
cumstances favored.  They  were  seed  sown,  to  come  up 
and  bear  fruit  at  the  destined  time.  Accordingly  under 
Gregory  VII.  they  came  up  in  full  vigor.  Accordingly, 
if  we  pass  on  and  survey  the  time  from  Gregory  VII.  to 
Innocent  III.,  we  find  the  building  up  and  completed 
even  as  it  was  at  the  reformation  and  as  it  stands  at 
this  day. 

And  now  is  it  asked,  "Who  planned  this  building  ?  I 
answer,  The  Romish  hierarchy,  just  as  truly  as  they 
planned  St.  Peter's  Church  in  the  interval  from  Julius  I. 
to  Leo  X.  What  is  its  great  idea  ?  A  corporation  of 
bishops  centralized  around  the  pope,  and  bound  to  him 
by  feudal  oaths  in  accordance  with  the  ideas  of  feudal 
times.  The  pope  is  the  great  feudal  monarch  of  the 
church,  and  also  an  independent  temporal  ruler.  He  also 
claims  to  be  the  feudal  lord  of  kings  and  emperors.  Who 
erected  this  building  ?  I  answer,  The  pope,  the  bishops, 
and  their  workmen.  On  what  is  it  founded  ?  and  what 
are  its  materials?  On  forgeries  entirely;  and  these  are 
its  materials  in  all  its  parts.  Of  these  forgeries,  what  are 
the  chief?  The  forged  decretals  of  Isidore  and  the  dona- 
tion of  Constantine.  Such  is  an  outline  of  the  course  of 
events  which  resulted  in  the  present  Romish  corporation. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMISH  CORPORATION.     261 

If  we  examine  carefully  the  whole  of  this  extended 
scheme,  we  shall  find  that  its  execution  presupposed  and 
demanded  the  four  following  great  steps  :  — 

1.  By  a  false  idea  of  holiness,  and  a  false  sacramental 
system,  to  put  the  people  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy  for 
salvation. 

2.  To  establish  the  principles  early  developed,  of  mo- 
narchical power  in  the  bishops  of  the  churches  in  numer- 
ous small  spheres,  by  an  early  and  primitive  set  of  forge- 
ries in  the  name  of  all  the  apostles,  and  thus  to  hew  out  the 
component  parts  of  the  last  great  fabric  by  themselves, 
but  not  to  raise  the  building  or  put  together  its  parts. 

3.  After  these  parts  had  been  once  centralized  around 
different  and  coordinate  centres  in  the  Roman  empire,  to 
devise  the  plan  for  a  new  organization  of  them  around  a 
common  centre  in  the  feudal  ages  that  should  follow  the 
downfall  of  Rome.     To  effect  this,  it  was  necessary  to 
provide  a  model  for  the  new  building,  and  also  the  scaf- 
folding, coupling  irons,  girders,  braces,  pins,  and  bolts 
that  were  necessary  to  put  the  parts  together  and  fix 
them  in  their  places. 

The  last  step  obviously  was,  — 

4.  To  raise  the  building,  put  it  together,  cover  and 
paint  it,  and  finish  it  inside  and  out. 

The  first  step  of  this  process  was  accomplished  in  the 
early  ages  of  the  church.  Even  in  the  days  of  Paul  the 
principles  were  at  work. 

The  second  part  was  completed  by  the  forgery  of  the 
Apostolical  Constitutions,  designed  to  establish  by  divine 
authority  the  augmented  power,  dignity,  and  honor  of 
the  bishops,  but  not  to  centralize  them  around  the  Pope  of 
Rome.  Thus  the  elementary  parts  of  the  great  fabric 
were  prepared ;  but  they  were  not  so  combined  as  to  make 
a  universal  despotism. 


262         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

The  third  part  of  the  process  was  accomplished  by  first 
organizing  these  parts  into  coordinate  hierarchies  under 
the  Roman  government,  and  by  then  preparing  the  means 
for  the  consolidation  of  them  into  one  by  the  forged  de- 
cretals in  the  feudal  times  after  old  Rome  fell,  and  to  give 
•  this  a  basis  on  a  temporal  monarchy  by  the  forged  dona- 
tion of  Constantine  and  other  similar  forgeries. 

The  fourth  part  of  the  process  was  effected  by  such  men 
as  Nicholas  I.,  Gregory  VII.,  Innocent  III.,  who  labored 
assiduously  from  century  to  century  till  the  fabric  was 
completed. 

From  this  brief  survey,  it  is  evident  that  the  period  from 
Gregory  VII.  to  the  reformation,  a  period  of  four  centuries, 
is  eminently  THE  PAPAL  PERIOD.  Parts  of  the  system  were 
developed  in  early  ages ;  but  such  a  combination  of  them 
as  distinguished  this  period,  and  the  various  inventions  de- 
signed and  essential  to  carry  out  and  perfect  the  system, 
were  not  even  dreamed  of  in  the  early  ages.  It  is  no  less 
evident  that  fraud  and  forgery  are  the  basis  of  the  whole 
system,  and  that,  to  go  to  the  bottom  of  the  whole  matter, 
we  ought  to  take  a  radical  view  of  the  origin  and  nature 
of  the  pious  frauds  of  the  early  ages  and  the  forged 
literature  of  the  middle  ages.  This  I  propose  in  its  place 
to  do  ;  but  at  present  I  can  only  give  a  brief  account  of 
the  greatest  of  all  forgeries  ever  known  on  earth,  and  on 
which,  more  than  on  all  else,  the  present  Romish  corpora- 
tion is  based. 

It  appears  that  the  principles  needed  were  such  as  were 
suited  to  centralize  the  bishops  around  the  pope,  to  give 
him  supreme  legislative  and  judicial  power,  and  to  make 
him  an  independent  temporal  monarch. 

But  whence  can  they  be  derived  ?  From  the  Bible  ?  It 
is  not  pretended.  From  the  authentic  works  of  the  fathers  ? 
No  ;  they  are  not  there.  From  previous  forgeries  ?  No  ; 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  263 

these  have  had  their  day  ;  they  are  not  sufficient.  From  de- 
cisions of  general  councils  ?  No  ;  these  are  all  against  the 
plan.  How  then?  They  must  be  forged — newly,  wholly 
forged. 

But  in  whose  name  ?  The  decretals  are  to  be  forged  in 
the  name  of  Clement,  spoken  of  by  Paul,  and  of  those 
claimed  as  his  successors  in  the  early  centuries  in  the  chair 
of  Peter,  as  the  Pope  of  Rome.  They  are  to  be  decrees 
issued  by  them  to  the  churches,  and  they  are  to  contain 
just  what  the  popes  or  Satan  needed  at  that  time  to  carry 
out  their  plans  of  a  centralized  monarchy.  The  points  at 
which  they  aim  are,  — 

1.  To  make  plain  the  establishment  of  Peter's  see  at 
Rome,  and  the  transmission  of  his  power  to  the  popes,  and 
what  that  power  was. 

2.  To  establish,  and  defend,  and  increase  the  power  of 
the  bishops  against  the  laity,  and  to  shield  them  from  all 
attacks. 

3.  Above  all,  to  make  the  pope  the  great  centre  of  the 
•whole  system — investing  him  with  a  plenitude  of  power, 
legislative  and  judicial. 

4.  To  give  him  independence  of  all  temporal  powers 
by  the  use  of  an  earlier  forgery  in  the  name  of  Constantino. 

Accordingly  the  forgeries  were  made  ;  and  in  the  names 
of  those  men  and  a  forged  council  under  Sylvester  all 
these  things  were  done,  and  the  decretals  were  put  forth 
as  the  decisions  of  God  through  the  early  popes,  to  be  re- 
ceived and  obeyed  on  penalty  of  eternal  damnation. 

And  now,  perhaps,  you  will  call  for  my  proof  of  all  this. 
It  is  found  in  the  first  volume  of  an  'edition  of  the  councils. 
Here  are  the  forged  decretals  themselves ;  here  is  the  do- 
nation of  Constantino  ;  here  is  the  forged  council  of 
which  I  spoke  ;  and  they  contain  all  that  I  have  alleged. 

But  whose  edition  is  it  ?     Is  it  authentic  ?  or  is  it  a 


264         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Protestant  edition  ?  It  is  the  first  volume  of  Councils,  by 
Severinus  Binius,  published  at  Cologne  1618,  authenti- 
cated by  a  special  bull  of  Pope  Paul  V.,  sanctioned  and 
patronized  by  the  Emperor  of  Germany,  doubly  approved 
and  licensed  by  the  Romish  censors  of  the  press. 

Its  titlepage  exhibits  its  character.  On  the  top  the  three 
Persons  of  the  Trinity  are  represented  ;  on  one  side  of 
them  is  Peter,  with  his  keys  and  coat  of  arms ;  on  the 
other,  a  representation  of  the  temporal  power  wielded  by 
the  pope  through  the  sword.  On  the  right  side  the  church, 
holding  a  cross,  the  pope's  triple  crown,  and  keys  ;  on  the 
left  side  religion,  with  a  crucifix  ;  and  over  each  the  Holy 
Ghost  as  a  dove.  At  the  bottom,  the  pope,  at  the  head  of 
the  corporation  of  bishops,  treading  on  a  prostrate  band 
of  so  called  heretics  ;  and  over  them,  in  Latin,  the  inscrip- 
tion :  "  They  are  dead  that  sought  the  church's  life." 

No  one  need  doubt  that  this  is  a  genuine  Roman  Cath- 
olic book.  Besides,  Binius,  in  his  address  to  the  magis- 
trates of  Cologne,  speaks  of  its  contents  as  the  basis  of 
the  Roman  canon  law,  and  calls  on  the  pope  to  defend  it 
against  the  assaults  of  innovators  and  heretics ;  and  the 
pope  responds  to  his  appeal,  sanctions  it  by  a  bull,  and 
says  the  book  has  given  him  great  consolation,  and  that 
he  believes  that  the  audacity  and  the  petulance  of  the  ad- 
versaries of  truth  will  be  powerfully  crushed  by  it,  and 
their  impostures  and  lies  against  the  sound  and  orthodox 
doctrine  of  the  holy  fathers  will  be  admirably  detected. 

Let  us  now  read  and  see.  The  heretics  say  that  there 
is  no  proof  that  Peter  ever  was  at  Rome  or  had  his  see 
there,  or  a  chair  or  llhrone  there,  or  that  he  transmitted 
his  authority,  and  no  proof  that  he  had  any  to  transmit. 

Now,  see  how  very  easy  it  is  for  this  book  to  crush  tbre 
audacity  and  petulance  of  such  adversaries  of  the  truth. 

Here  we  find  a  long  letter  from  Clement,  Pope  of  Rome, 


GENERAL 

ANT)    I'il'iVlXCJAL, 

G  K  K  K  K     A  X  D    L  A  T  1  N' , 

SO  FAK  AS  KXOV.'X. 

ALSO, 

DECRETAL  EPISTLES 

AXD  LIVES  OF  ROMAN  PONTIFFS. 

ALL  BY  THE  STUDY  AXD  LABOR  OK 

,   D.D.. 
PRESBYTER  OF  THE  METROPOLITAN 

cnrRcii  OF  COLOGXE. 

REVISED,  ENLARGED,  AXD  AGAIN 

ILLUSTRATE!)  WITH  NOTES, 
AND  ARRANGED  IX  AX  HISTORICAL 

METHOD. 
TO  *'.   D.  X.   PAUL.  I'OPK   I'. 

COLOGXE. 
BY  JOHN  GYMNICl'S, 

i  ei 8. 
wrrn  THE  F.I  ruK.ixn  1'RiriLKut:  ot 

HIS  HOYAL  JfAJEffY. 


FORMATION   OF  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  2()5 

to  James  the  apostle  at  Jerusalem,  establishing  beyond 
dispute  the  genuine  Romish  doctrine  on  all  these  points. 
This  great  gap  in  history  is  thus  completely  filled. 

Clement  opens  the  letter  by  pronouncing  a  eulogy  on 
Peter,  as  an  introduction  to  a  statement  of  the  mournful 
fact  of  his  death.  He  then  proceeds  to  say,  "  When  he 
saw  that  his  death  was  near,  having  assembled  the  breth- 
ren, he  suddenly  arose,  and,  taking  me  by  the  hand,  spoke 
these  words  in  the  hearing  of  the  whole  church :  '  Hear 
me,  my  brethren  and  fellow-servants.  Inasmuch  as  the  day 
of  my  death  is  at  hand,  even  as  I  have  been  told  by  my 
Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ,  who  sent  me,  I  ordain  this 
Clement  as  your  bishop,  and  to  him  alone  I  assign  the 
chair  of  my  preaching  and  doctrine.  He  has  been  with 
me  in  all  things  from  the  beginning  as  an  attendant,  and 
thus  has  thoroughly  known  the  truths  which  I  preach. 
In  all  my  trials  he  has  been  my  constant  and  faithful  com- 
panion. I  have  found  him  to  be  eminently  distinguished 
for  his  love  to  God  and  to  man,  chaste,  devoted  to  study, 
sober,  kind,  just,  patient,  and  able  to  bear  injuries  even 
from  those  who  profess  to  be  students  of  the  word  of 
God.  Therefore  I  give,  him  the  power  of  binding  and 
loosing  which  was  given  to  me  by  my  Lord  ;  so  that  what- 
soever he  shall  decree  on  earth  shall  be  decreed  in  heav- 
en. He  shall  bind  what  ought  to  be  bound  and  loose  what 
ought  to  be  loosed,  as  one  who  perfectly  understands  the 
laws  of  the  church.  Hear  ye  him,  therefore,  knowing 
that  whosoever  shall  grieve  a  teacher  of  the  truth  sins 
against  Christ,  and  offends  God,  the  Father  of  all,  and 
shall  therefore  perish.  But  he  who  rules  others  ought  to 
act  the  part  of  a  physician,  and  not  to  be  actuated  by  the 
fury  of  a  wild  beast.' ;;  He  then  proceeds  to  state  his 
own  modest  reluctance  to  assume  so  great  a  burden,  and 
the  urgency  and  decision  of  Peter  in  refusing  to  allow 
23 


266        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

him  to  decline  the  office.  After  this  he  records  at  length 
the  charge  of  Peter  to  him,  to  the  other  officers  of  the 
church,  and  to  the  brethren,  extending  through  six  large 
folio  pages.  At  the  close  he  demands  belief  and  obedi- 
ence of  all,  on  penalty  of  the  wrath  of  God  and  endless 
Buffering  in  penal  fire. 

Thus  we  have  an  account  of  this  important  transaction 
in  detail,  to  the  confusion  of  all  heretics  and  to  the  honor 
and  comfort  of  all  genuine  Romanists.  In  the  same  way 
these  decretals  set  forth  the  power  of  the  bishops.  Of 
course  they  fully  unfold  the  magnitude  of  the  pope's  pow- 
er, and  set  forth  the  doctrine  that  he  is  the  summit  of 
judgment  in  ecclesiastical  cases,  and  that  all  who  think 
themselves  injured  may  and  ought  to  appeal  to  him. 

Thus  Anacletus,  the  third  pope,  after  setting  forth  the 
regular  order  of  appeals  to  metropolitans  and  patriarchs, 
expressly  says,  "  If  difficult  questions  arise,  let  them,  on 
appeal,  be  referred  to  the  apostolic  seat ;  for  the  apostles 
decided  this  by  the  command  of  the  Savior,  that  the  great 
and  more  difficult  questions  shall  always  be  referred  to 
the  apostolic  chair,  upon  which  Christ  built  the  whole 
church  when  he  said  to  the  blessed  Peter,  the  prince  of 
the  apostles,  '  Thou  art  a  rock,7 "  &c. 

Sixtus,  the  seventh  pope,  says,  "  If  any  one  has  been 
overthrown  in  judgment  by  any  calamity,  let  him  not  hes- 
itate to  appeal  to  this  sacred  and  apostolic  seat ;  but  let 
him  take  refuge  in  it  as  the  head  of  the  church,  lest  he 
should  be  condemned  without  cause  or  his  church  suffer 
wrong." 

Here,  now,  we  have  the  highest  authority  ;  for  Anacle- 
tus, as  appears  from  the  Papal  lists,  was  pope  before  Clem- 
ent, even  in  .the  very  times  of  the  apostles,  and  Sixtus  ia 
only  the  thirji  after  Clement.  What  more,  then,  could 
the  most  incredulous  wish  ?  Moreover,  as  the  pope  need- 


FORMATION   OF  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  267 

ed  to  be  independent  of  all  civil  law  and  jurisdiction, 
here  is  the  donation  of  Constantine,  the  original  basis  of 
his  claims  to  temporal  power. 

In  this,  Constantine,  after  referring  to  his  baptism  by 
Sylvester,  gives  to  him  and  his  see  all  glory,  all  dignity, 
all  imperial  power  ;  also  the  palace  of  the  Lateran,  all 
imperial  vestments,  and  the  imperial  dignity.  He  then 
adds,  "  That  the  Papal  supremacy  may  not  be  degraded, 
but  may  excel  in  honor  and  power  all  earthly  authority, 
we  give  and  grant,  not  only  our  palace  as  before  said,  but 
the  city  Rome,  and  all  the  provinces,  places,  and  cities 
of  Italy  and  of  the  "Western  regions,  to  the  aforesaid 
blessed  Pope  Sylvester,  universal  bishop,  and  to  his  suc- 
cessors in  the  Papal  authority  and  power.  *  *  *  For 
this  reason  we  have  thought  it  fit  to  transfer  our  authority 
and  power  into  the  Oriental  regions,  and  in  the  best  loca- 
tion in  the  Byzantine  province  to  build  a  city  in  our  name 
and  there  to  establish  our  empire  ;  since  where  the  head 
of  the  priests  and  of  the  Christian  religion,  ordained  by 
the  King  of  heaven,  bears  sway,  there  it  is  not  right  that 
an  earthly  emperor  should  have  any  power." 

But,  lest  the  pope  should  seem  to  rest  his  jurisdiction 
on  the  decision  of  the  imperial  power,  the  authority  of  a 
council  is  needed ;  and  therefore,  to  make  assurance 
doubly  sure,  here  is  the  Roman  council,  under  Sylvester, 
giving  religious  and  political  supremacy  of  judgment  to 
the  pope. 

Of  this  the  twentieth  canon  is  as  follows  :  "  Let  no  one 
judge  the  chief  bishop ;  since  all  prelates  desire  that  jus- 
tice should  be  dispensed  by  the  chief  bishop.  Let  not  this 
judge  be  judged,  neither  by  the  emperor,  nor  by  the  whole 
clergy,  nor  by  kings,  nor  by  the  people." 

Is  not  this  enough  to  crush  the  petulance  and  audacity 
of  the  enemies  of  the  truth  ? 


268         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

And  then,  think  of  the  terrific  sanction  annexed  to  a 
disregard  of  the  decretals  —  the  wrath  of  Almighty  God 
and  eternal  fire  on  all  who  will  not  believe  and  obey  ! 

And  now  it  may  be  asked,  Were  these  things  ever  put 
forth  to  be  believed  ?  I  answer,  Yes,  and  to  be  acted  on  ; 
and  for  eight  long  centuries  they  were  believed  and  acted 
on.  They  furnished  the  very  principles  that  the  pope  and 
his  agents  needed  to  put  up  the  present  structure  of  this 
corporation.  They  used  them  and  put  it  up,  and  they  be- 
came the  very  basis  of  the  present  Romish  canon  law. 

There  was,  as  I  have  said,  an  earlier  set  of  apostolic 
canons  and  constitutions  forged  and  fitted  to  use  for  a 
time.  But  these,  though  useful  in  their  day,  did  not  contain 
the  powers  needed  for  the  present  exigency  ;  but,  as  they 
still  had  authority  in  some  things,  they  and  the  Isidorian 
canons  were  wrought  together  by  Gratian  and  an  effort 
made  to  reconcile  the  contradictions.  (Concordantia  Dis- 
cordantium  Canonum,  1.  iii.  1151.)  At  last  all  of  the  old 
canon  law  that  was  inconsistent  with  the  new  was  dropped, 
and  the  Isidorian  principles  in  Gratian  prevailed,  and  are 
now  the  very  lifeblood  of  the  Romish  canon  law,  only  it 
has  been  pushed  to  still  greater  extremes.  And  now,  when 
I  repeat  that  these  are  all  forgeries,  unmingled  forgeries, 
without  even  a  particle  of  truth  to  build  on,  I  leave  you 
to  judge  by  what  name  such  a  deed  should  be  called. 
Not  a  superficial  forgery,  but  a  forgery  of  a  real  terrific 
government,  to  the  exclusion  of  the  Bible  —  a  fundamental 
forgery  of  the  very  system  which  they  now  attempt  to  im- 
pose on  us,  as  ordained  of  God  and  essential  to  salvation. 
But  it  may  be  asked,  Is  there  clear  proof  that  all  these- 
things  are  forgeries  ?  I  answer,  There  is  proof  so  clear 
that  even  the  ablest  writers  of  the  Romish  church  do  not 
pretend  to  deny  it. 

To  be  sure,  this  infallible  corporation  has  never  made  an 


FORMATION   OF  THE  EOMISH   CORPORATION.  269 

honorable  confession  ;  nor  have  they  yielded  to  the  truth 
from  the  love  of  it,  but  because  they  were  forced  to  do  it 
by  evidence  so  strong  that  they  knew  that  it  would  be  ruin- 
ous to  their  cause  to  make  issue  on  this  point.  First  Lyra 
and  Calvin,  and  then  the  Magdeburg  centuriators,  assailed 
them  ;  and  if  any  one  desires  to  see  a  perfect  logical,  criti- 
cal, and  historical  annihilation  of  their  claims,  let  him  read 
the  analysis  of  them  in  the  second  and  third  centuries  of 
the  Magdeburg  centuriators  and  in  Calvin.  Their  works 
are  in  the  Boston  Athenaeum  and  in  the  Harvard  Library. 
Yet  still  Turrianus,  a  Jesuit,  wrote  five  books  in  their  de- 
fence ;  and  this  book  of  Binius  joins  with  Turrianus  to 
defend  them.  The  work  of  David  Blondell,  at  Geneva, 
in  1628,  ten  years  after  this,  settled  the  question.  Baronius 
the  cardinal,  who  wrote  expressly  to  answer  the  Magde- 
burg centuriators,  abandons  the  defence  of  them.  Bellar- 
mine  the  Jesuit,  a  cardinal,  and  the  great  champion  of  the 
Romish  cause,  abandons  the  defence  of  them.  Fleury,  the 
great  French  historian,  confessor  to  Louis  XV.,  not  only 
abandons  the  defence  of  them,  but  powerfully  exposes  their 
falsehood  and  pernicious  consequences.  I  need  not  say 
that  all  Protestant  historians  do  the  same,  and  those  who 
are  neither  Catholic  nor  Protestant  do  the  same.  Indeed 
these  stupendous  forgeries  are  as  much  an  established  and 
conceded  fact  in  history  as  the  English,  American,  and 
French  revolutions. 

What,  then,  is  the  nature  of  the  evidence  that,  against 
interests  so  prodigious  and  motives  so  violent,  compelled 
the  Romanists  (not  the  popes,  their  decisions  still  stand)  to 
abandon  the  defence  of  these  foundations  of  their  system? 
They  were,  in  general,  the  utter  absurdity  on  internal 
evidence  of  supposing  them  to  have  been  written  in  the 
age  in  which  they  professed  to  have  been  written,  and  the 
absurdities  and  contradictions  with  which  they  are  filled. 
23* 


270        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

The  professed  authors  lived  in  ages  of  persecution  and 
weakness  and  befcTre  the  hierarchy  was  developed.  They 
omit  all  that  is  proper  to  that  age.  Their  writings  are  not 
adapted  to  console  or  strengthen  those  suffering,  persecuted 
Christians  to  whom  they  write.  Nay,  they  are  intent  on 
nothing  but  the  great  work  of  regulating  a  hierarchy  that 
did  not  exist,  increasing  the  power  of  the  pope  and  his 
patriarchs  and  bishops  and  organizing  them  into  a  compact 
system  of  despotism.  They  profess  to  be  the  letters  of 
successive  popes  during  the  first  two  centuries.  They  are 
all  in  the  style  of  one  man.  They  profess  to  have  been 
written  long  before  the  peculiar  Latin  words  and  style  of 
the  middle  ages  were  formed  or  known  ;  yet  they  are  full 
of  such  words,  and  all  in  the  style  of  those  ages.  It  is  as 
if,  in  a  professed  letter  of  Lord  Bacon,  we  should  find 
him  talking  of  daguerreotypes,  and  steamboats,  and  rail- 
roads in  the  style  and  idiom  of  this  day.  They  profess 
to  have  been  written  long  before  certain  writers  lived  and 
certain  laws  were  made  ;  and  yet  they  freely  quote 
those  writers  and  those  laws.  This  is  as  if  a  professed 
letter  of  Franklin  should  quote  the  laws  of  this  state 
passed  this  year  or  the  last  proclamation  of  Governor 
Briggs.  They  profess  to  have  been  written  when  in  fact 
certain  doctrines  and  rites  were  unknown  ;  and  yet  they 
are  full  of  those  doctrines  and  rites.  They  profess  to  have 
been  written  before  the  occurrence  of  certain  controver- 
sies respecting  some  of  the  very  points  decided  by  them  ; 
and  yet,  though  their  authority  would  have  been  decisive, 
no  one  in  those  controversies  ever  appealed  to  them. 
Again :  they  profess  to  be  written  by  men  who  must  at 
least  have  known  enough  to  date  their  own  letters  cor- 
rectly ;  yet  they  are  full  of  false  dates  ;  so  that,  according 
to  the  dates,  some  were  written  before  the  authors  were 
popes,  and  others  after  they  were  dead. 


FORMATION  OF  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  271 

But  the  most  notorious  blunder  of  all  is  in  trying  to 
link  the  pontifical  chain  to  Peter  at  Rome.  Great  pains 
is  taken  to  do  this  thoroughly  ;  and  yet,  in  his  efforts  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  the  forger  makes  Clement 
tell  us  that  Peter,  before  his  death,  enjoined  it  on  him  to 
write  to  James,  brother  of  our  Lord,  at  Jerusalem,  and 
inform  him  of  all  the  facts.  And  yet  it  is  a  notorious 
fact  that  James  died  seven  years  before  Peter ;  and  yet 
Peter,  it  seems,  did  not  know  of  this  fact,  but  supposed  him 
still  living  at  Jerusalem.  He  must  have  been  a  poor 
pope  indeed.  Our  popes  commonly  find  it  out  before 
seven  years  when  a  bishop  dies.  But  Peter,  it  seems,  did 
not  yet  know,  when  he  ordained  Clement  Pope  of  Rome, 
that  James,  one  of  his  brother  apostles,  was  dead,  though 
he  had  been  dead  seven  years. 

The  force  of  this  is  so  great  that  it  staggered  Binius. 
He  says,  either  this  epistle  was  not  written  by  Clement,  or 
else  the  name  James  crept  into  the  title  instead  of  Simeon  ; 
which  last  he  seems  to  rest  on.  A  miserable  subterfuge 
truly.  Not  only  is  the  name  James  in  the  title,  but  in 
the  body  of  the  letter  ;  and  not  in  one  letter,  but  in  two. 
Truly  this  is  a  splendid  way,  as  the  pope  says,  to  crush 
the  audacity  and  the  petulance  of  the  heretics. 
•  1.  And  now,  who  is  responsible  for  all  this?  It  may 
be  said,  not  the  popes  and  bishops,  but  Isidore  and  other 
forgers.  Is  it  so  ?  I  ask,  Whose  ends  did  these  forgeries 
promote?  whose  power  were  they  designed  to  increase? 
"Was  it  not  that  of  the  bishops  and  popes  ?  Again  :  Who 
used  them  ?  Did  not  the  bishops  and  popes  ?  Again  : 
Who  sanctioned  them  ?  Did  not  the  successive  popes  ? 
and  did  not  the  bishops  consent?  This,  as  Peter  Dens 
tells  us,  binds  the  whole  church.  Again :  Who  gave  these 
decretals  such  authority  in  the  new  canon  law  of  Rome  ? 
And  have  these  things  ever  been  retracted  or  undone  ? 


2t2         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

2.  What  -  defence  is  made?     Are   the   facts  denied? 
They  cannot  be.    The  defence  is,  that  the  pope  and  bish- 
ops did  not  gain  AS  MUCH  by  them  as  is  alleged.     Then 
the  guilt  of  a  forgery  is  to  be  estimated  by  the  amount 
gained  :  and,  so  far  as  you  diminish  the  amount,  you  dimin- 
ish the  guilt.    Is   this  Romish  morality  ?    So  it  seems. 
But  one  thing  is  sure — it  is  not  the  morality  of  God.    He 
that  is  unfaithful  in  little  is  unfaithful  in  much.     But  is  it 
little  for  such  a  system  to  have  had  undisputed  power  for 
eight  hundred  years,  with  an  authority  greater  than  that 
of  the  Bible  ?    Let  the  candid  judge. 

3.  Was  no  protest  made  in  that  long  age  ?    There  was ; 
but  Papal  power,  and  the  terrors  of  excommunication, 
and  the  stake  silenced  it. 

4.  This  point,  then,  renders  my  argument  complete. 
Even  if  an  infallible  corporation  was  promised,  this  is  not 
the  one.     Mr.  Brownson's  a  posteriori  scriptural  argument 
only  professes  to  reach  this  point — that  Christ  promised  to 
establish  an  infallible  corporation.     His  a  priori  argument 
only  professes   to  prove  that  one  is  essential  to  faith. 
Neither  argument  is  valid.    But  if  they  were,  I  still  say, 
a  forging  and  swindling  corporation  is  not  God's  inter- 
preter or  guide  to  heaven,  but  the  object  of  his  fiercest 
wrath. 

5.  I  have  selected  this  as  a  case  clear  and  momentous 
and  of  which  the  proof  is  undeniable ;  but  it  stands  not 
by  itself.    It  is  the  part  of  a  widely-extended  system,  as 
I  shall  show  in  its  place.     Satan  did  indeed  come  through 
this  corporation  with  power,  and  signs,  and  lying  won- 
ders, and  all  deceivableness  of  unrighteousness.      They 
spoke  lies  in  hypocrisy,  having  their  consciences  seared 
as  with  a  hot  iron. 

6.  And  now,  can  a  corporation  of  which  such  are  the 
actions  be  a  teacher  of  honesty  ?    Do  not  actions  speak 


FORMATION  OP  THE  ROMISH   CORPORATION.  273 

louder  than  words  ?  I  hesitate  not  to  say  that  the  Romish 
corporation,  by  these  and  similar  forgeries  and  frauds, 
founded  her  whole  system  on  notorious  falsehoods.  What 
wonder,  then,  that,  as  I  have  shown,  she  became  the  great 
school  of  lying  for  the  whole  world  ?  Nor  can  a  moral 
soundness  on  earth  as  to  the  truth  be  produced  except 
by  the  formation  of  a  sentiment  of  righteous  abhorrence 
that  shall  consume  her  as  burning  fire.  She  is  .simply  -a 
political,  religious,  and  commercial  confederation,  or  cor- 
poration, banded  against  God  and  the  truth ;  and  either 
God  and  the  truth  must  give  way,  or  she  must  be  de- 
stroyed. Which  do  you  think  will  be  the  result? 

7.  Finally,  to  do  this  work  God  asks  no  brutal  force, 
no  persecution,  no  material  fire.  He  needs  only  that 
brute  force  shall  not  be  allowed  to  murder  those  who 
speak  the  truth ;  and  then  he  will  kindle  no  fire  but  the 
fire  of  holiness  and  truth.  But  none  does  he  need  besides. 
This  will  consume  the  wb.de  system  to  ashes  and  burn  it 
to  the  lowest  hell. 


CHAPTER  IT. 


NICHOLAS  I.  AND  THE  FORGERIES  AND  FRAUDS  OF  THE 
MIDDLE  AGES. 


WE  are  prone  to  be  incredulous  when  we  see  a  phe- 
nomenon far  beyond  the  range  of  our  experience.  We,  as 
Protestants,  have  never  sounded  the  depths  of  the  sys- 
tem of  pious  frauds.  We  need,  then,  to  pause  and  to  look 
more  deeply  into  the  matter.  No  one  can  easily  conceive 
how  deeply  it  has  affected  the  destinies  of  Europe  and  of 
the  world. 

We  propose,  then,  to  aim  at  two  points  at  once  —  to 
sketch  the  character  of  the  pope  who  first  appealed  to 
the  forged  decretals,  that  we  may  have  a  specimen  of 
their  use  ;  and  then  to  give  a  view  of  the  principles  from 
which  they  originated,  and  a  more  full  description  of  the 
decretals  themselves  and  of  their  influence  on  the  world, 
as  well  as  of  the  influence  of  the  theory  of  pious  fraud  on 
which  they  are  based.  It  will  be  seen  that  this  was  the 
key  that  opened  the  bottomless  pit  and  let  out  the  locust 
priesthood  of  Rome  to  ravage  and  devour  the  Christian 
world. 

• 

In  speaking  of  the  forgeries  of  the  middle  ages,  we 
take  the  Papacy  of  Nicholas  I.  as  the  point  of  vision  — 
A.  D.  858-867  ;  in  the  first  place  because  he  first  ap- 
pealed to  the  forged  decretals,  —  the  most  wonderful  in- 
stance of  forgery  ever  known  in  the  history  of  the  church, — 

(274) 


THE  FORGERIES  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  275 

and  then  because  he  is  a  fine  exemplification  of  that  spir- 
it of  matchless  impudence  with  which  the  leaders  of  the 
corporation  of  Rome  have  imposed  their  forgeries  and 
frauds  on  the  world  in  all  ages. 

After  Leo  the  Great,  A.  D.  440-461,  and  Gregory  the 
Great,  A.  D.  590-604,  and  before  Gregory  VII.,  A.  D. 
1073-1085,  this  same  Nicholas  is,  beyond  all  doubt, 
the  most  remarkable  of  the  pontiffs.  And  although  his 
name  has  not  the  same  bad  eminence  in  the  popular  mind 
with  that  of  the  notorious  Hildebrand,  yet  so  great  was 
the  influence  exerted  by  him  on  the  course  of  events  that 
Guizot  does  not  hesitate  to  assert  that  the  sovereignty  of 
the  pope  really  takes  date  from  his  reign. 

When  he  ascended  the  throne,  the  Popes  of  Rome,  in 
their  progress  towards  supremacy,  were  exposed  to  the 
resistance  of  four  powers  —  the  patriarch  of  Constanti- 
nople, their  most  dangerous  spiritual  rival  and  antago- 
nist ;  the  national  churches  of  Europe,  which  had  arisen 
since  the  invasion  of  the  barbarians,  especially  those  of 
Italy,  France,  Spain,  and  England  ;  the  metropolitans,  an 
ecclesiastical  nobility  who  ruled  the  bishops  of  particular 
provinces  ;  and  the  civil  power,  whether  imperial  or  royal. 

Three  of  these  powers  were  represented  by  two  men 
quite  as  remarkable  as  Nicholas  himself.  The  chair  of 
the  see  of  Constantinople  was  filled  by  Photius  —  a  man  of 
vast  native  powers,  of  unrivalled  scholarship  and  learn- 
ing, of  exhaustless  energy  and  infinite  ambition.  Before 
he  was  raised  to  the  patriarchal  throne  he  had  passed 
through  almost  all  grades  of  civil  office  and  promotion. 

Without  entering  into  the  details  of  the  warfare,  it  is 
enough  to  say  that  these  ambitious  rulers  of  the  Eastern 
and  Western  churches  met  in  fierce  encounter.  Nicholas 
excommunicated  Photius,  and  Photius  Nicholas  ;  and  the 
great  and  incurable  Greek  schism  was  the  ultimate  result. 


276        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

The  national  churches  were  represented  in  the  person 
of  the  celebrated  Hincmar,  Archbishop  of  Rheims  and 
Primate  of  France,  the  great  churchman  of  the  age.  and 
the  most  learned  canonist  of  the  church. 

In  his  relations  to  his  own  bishops  he  also  represented 
the  ecclesiastical  nobility,  whom  the  pope  needed  to  sub- 
due, in  order  to  centralize  all  the  bishops  directly  in 
himself. 

By  the  canons  of  the  council  of  Sardica,  A.  D.  34T, 
(which  yet  was  not  ecumenical,)  the  Papal  power  was 
extended,  as  we  have  said,  beyond  all  precedent,  and  con- 
trary to  all  right,  in  merely  allowing  appeals  at  all  from 
metropolitan  councils  to  the  Roman  pontiff,  and  for  cen- 
turies after  this  council  the  African  bishops  forbade  such 
appeals.  And  yet,  even  by  these  canons,  the  pope  could 
only  order  a  new  trial  in  the  province,  aided  by  his 
legates,  and,  if  need  be,  by  delegates  from  neighboring 
provinces.  (Bower,  i.  57,  58.)  Nor  did  the  East  or  Af- 
rica ever  receive  this  council ;  nor  did  the  council  of 
Chalcedon  sanction  its  decrees. 

This  council,  then,  did  not  furnish  the  materials  needed 
to  establish  and  consolidate  the  Papal  power.  Such 
materials,  in  fact,  did  not  -exist.  It  was  necessary  to 
forge  them,  and  thus  to  set  up  claims  which  should  give 
to  the  pope  the  right  of  removing  all  such  cases  to  Rome, 
to  be  tried  before  his  own  tribunal.  And  this  point,  too, 
was  to  be  carried,  and  was  carried,  against  such  a  man  as 
Hincmar  of  Rheims. 

The  regal  power  was  also  to  be  subdued,  and  was  sub- 
dued, in  the  person  of  the  feeble  Lotharius.  Had  the 
regal  authority  been  represented  by  a  sovereign  like 
Charlemagne,  swaying  with  strong  grasp  the  power  of  a 
united  empire,  the  aggressions  of  Nicholas  would  have  met 
with  less  success  had  he  dared  to  engage  in  a  warfare  so 
unequal. 


THE  FORGERIES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  277 

But  the  vast  dominions  of  Charlemagne  had  been  divid- 
ed among  his  feeble  descendants,  and  they  had  turned  their 
arms  against  each  other.  Two  grandsons  and  three  great- 
grandsons  of  Charlemagne  then  sat  on  feeble  thrones. 
The  grandsons  were  Louis  in  Germany  and  Charles  the 
Bald  in  France;  the  great-grandsons,  Louis  in  Italy  and 
Rhoetia,  Lotharius  .in  Burgundy,  Alsatia,  and  Lorraine, 
and  Charles  in  Provence.  The  rest  of  these  could  in  a 
moment  be  stirred  up  to  invade  the  dominions  of  any  of 
the  five  whom  the  pope  should  excommunicate.  Hence 
each  was  powerless  in  single  combat  with  the  pope.  A 
single  Papal  anathema  would  become  the  signal  for  the 
invasion  and  subjugation  of  his  territories  by  the  others. 

Of  course  Nicholas  felt  that  he  was  their  master,  and 
declared  himself  such.  He  singled  out  Lotharius  as  the 
object  of  an  attack  designed  to  demonstrate  and  estab- 
lish his  power.  Lotharius  having  married  one  wife, 
Theutberga,  desired,  like  Henry  VIII.  in  after  days,  to 
divorce  her,  and  to  take  another,  Waldrada.  So  in  fact 
he  did,  and  that  with  the  countenance  of  his  own  bishops, 
led  on  by  the  Archbishops  Gunthier  and  Teutgaud,  a 
brother  and  uncle  of  "Waldrada.  Notice,  now,  the  influ- 
ence of  weakness  in  a  king  on  the  conscience  of  a  pope. 
Charlemagne  twice  did  the  same  thing.  He  also  left 
illegitimate  children  behind  him,  as  the  fruit  of  his  licen- 
tious excesses.  But  he  was  strong  ;  therefore  the  Papal 
conscience  was  undisturbed,  and  he  was  sainted.  But 
Lotharius,  his  luckless-  descendant,  was  weak.  This 
aroused  the  tender  conscience  of  the  pope  ;  and  with 
apostolic  zeal  he  declared  war  upon  him  for  his  manifest 
crime. 

Even  so  the  conscience  of  Gregory  VII.  was  very 
sensitive  in  the  case  of  Henry '  IV.,  who  was  enfee- 
bled by  a  revolt  in  his  empire,  but  was  quite  tor- 
24 


278        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

pid  in  the  case  of  "William  the  Conqueror,  for  he  was  un- 
conquerably strong.  Yet  William  had  sinned  as  griev- 
ously as  Henry.  At-  the  synod  of  Winchester,  A.  D. 
1076,  Gregory's  law,  enjoining  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy, 
was  very  materially  modified.  The  bishops  whom  Greg- 
ory had  summoned  to  Rome  were  forbidden  by  William 
to  obey  the  summons,  to  the  very  great  annoyance  and 
chagrin  of  Gregory.  The  king,  too,  continued  to  exer- 
cise the  right  of  investiture,  which  in  the  case  of  Henry 
was  so  impious.  Other  presumptuous  demands  of  Greg- 
ory were  repelled  with  cold  indifference.  Yet  no  thun- 
derbolts of  divine  wrath  were  hurled  from  the  pontifical 
throne  against  the  royal  sinner.  Gregory  prudently 
declined  the  encounter  with  so  vigorous  an  antagonist, 
fearful  of  provoking  him  to  terrific  retaliation.  Hence 
the  spirit  of  the  Papal  policy  in  all  ages  is  truly  described 
in  the  old  saying,  in  which  we  are  told  that  the  chief 
end  of  man  is  to  keep  what  he  has  got  and  to  get  what 
he  can.  The  aggrandizement  of  their  power  has  been 
their  constant  end  in  all  ages.  In  pursuit  of  this,  they 
have,  as  circumstances  favored,  steadily  augmented  their 
claims,  regarding  merely  the  principles  of  selfish  policy, 
and  never  those  of  benevolence,  honor,  or  truth. 

So  Nicholas  acted  in  the  case  of  Lotharius.  Theut- 
berga  solicited  his  aid.  He  undertook  her  cause,  and, 
under  pretext  of  defending  her,  put  forth  and  established 
the  most  arrogant  claims  of  Papal  supremacy.  He  encoun- 
tered and  defeated  both  king,  archbishops,  and  bishops. 

Though  the  council  of  bishops  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  in 
accordance  with  the  wishes  of  the  king,  had  divorced  her, 
this  was  nothing  to  Nicholas.  He  sent  legates  into  Lor- 
raine, and,  at  a  second  council  at  Metz,  caused  the  case 
to  be  reexamined  by  his  legates.  Lotharius  bribed  the 
legates,  and  the  second  council  confirmed  the  doings  of 


THE  FORGERIES  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  279 

the  first.  Nicholas  was  enraged,  but  not  dismayed.  By 
an  extravagant  assumption  of  power,  by  his  own  authority, 
he  declared  the  decision  null  and  void,  and  deposed  at  a 
blow  the  king's  archbishops,  Gunthier  and  Teutgaud,  and 
he  was  victorious.  Though  they  struggled  long  and  des- 
perately against  him,  they  could  not  retain  their  office, 
but  fell  before  his  power.  He  also  excommunicated 
Waldrada,  and  compelled  Lotharius  to  take  back  Theut- 
berga.  Thus  did  he  effectually  subdue  the  regal  power. 

Twice  also,  in  an  ecclesiastical  conflict,  he  defeated 
Hincmar  ;  and  here  he  invested  himself  in  the  panoply  of 
the  forged  decretals.  Of  these  we  may  safely  say  that, 
of  all  the  forgeries  that  ever  disgraced  the  nominal  fol- 
lowers of  Christianity,  they  are  the  most  gigantic  in  con- 
ception, successful  in  execution,  and  terrific  in  power. 
They  changed  the  whole  face  of  the  Christian  world,  and 
are  the  spirit  of  the  canon  law  and  the  basis  of  the  Papal 
corporation  to  this  day. 


THE  FORGED  DECRETALS. 

Gieseler  fixes  their  composition  between  A.  D.  829  and 
845  in  France,  and  ascribes  them  to  Benedict  Levita,  of 
Mentz.  Guizot  coincides.  As  to  the  direct  agency  of 
the  popes  in  their  composition,  opinions  vary.  But 
Mosheim  does  not  hesitate  to  regard  the  popes  as  their 
knowing  and  deliberate  authors.  He  regards  it  as  im- 
possible that  such  a  forgery  should  have  come  into  exist- 
ence and  use,  touching  as  it  does  all  the  springs  of  their 
influence  and  authority,  without  their  knowledge  and 
cooperation.  At  all  events,  Nicholas  I.  has  the  unenvi- 
able notoriety  of  having  first  appealed  to  them  as  au- 
thentic documents. 


280        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

From  him,  till  the  reformation  detected  the  cheat,  — 
that  is,  for  about  seven  centuries,  —  they  were  appealed 
to  without  suspicion  in  the  public  affairs  of  the  church 
and  used  by  the  popes  to  gain  their  ends  without  any 
material  opposition.  That  we  do  not  falsely  charge 
Nicholas,  facts  show.  None  of  his  predecessors  have 
referred  to  them. 

Leo  IV.,  A.  D.  850,  does  not  include  them  among  the 
standards  of  judgment.  Nor  does  even  Nicholas  L,  in 
863  ;  but  in  865,  in  his  letters  to  all  the  French  bishops, 
he  defends  their  authority.  —  Gieseler,  ii.  65-69. 

Nicholas  was  a  fit  •  leader  in  the  enterprise  of  intro- 
ducing so  vast  a  scheme  of  fraud  for  the  purposes  of 
hierarchical  aggrandizement.  He  is  an  exact  image  of 
Gregory  VII.  or  Innocent  III.  He  was  a  man  "of  un 
common  intellectual  power,  of  great  attainments  for 
his  age,  and  of  gigantic  energy  of  will.  He 'was  also 
ambitious  to  the  highest  degree,  and  strained  his  claims 
of  supreme  authority,  infallibility,  and  irresponsibility  to 
man  to  the  highest  pitch  of  extravagance  and  arrogance  ; 
and  having  fought  and  gained  a  great  battle  with  the 
civil  power,  in  the  person  of  King  Lothaire  II.,  on  the 
points  already  specified,  he  also  determined  to  gain  a 
victory  over  the  ecclesiastical  nobility  that  came  between 
the  pope  and  the  common  order  of  bishops,  and  over 
national  churches,  in  the  person  of  Hincmar,  Archbishop 
of  Rheims,  head  of  the  French  church.  Hincmar  had, 
without  sufficient  reason,  suspended  Rothade,  Bishop  of 
Soissons.  He  appealed  to  the  pope.  Hincmar  disre- 
garded his  appeal,  and  deposed  him  at  the  synod  of 
Soissons.  Rothade  appealed  again ;  and  Nicholas  called 
up  the  affair  at  Rome,  and  by  his  own  authority  annulled 
the  decision  of  the  council  and  restored  Rothade.  Hinc- 
mar resisted,  but  was  obliged  to  submit. 


THE  FORGEKIES   OP  THE  MIDDLE   AGES.  281 

To  defend  himself  in  this  highhanded  measure,  Nich- 
olas appealed  to  the  authority  of  the  forged  decretals, 
thus  introducing  the  use  of  that  vast  system  of  fraud  ; 
for  this  is  the  first  example,  as  before  stated,  of  an 
appeal  to  this  forgery. 

On  this  occasion,  also,  he  asserted  the  pseudo-Isidorian 
principles  in  full — that  obedience  was  due  to  all  Papal 
decrees  as  such,  and  demanded  from  all  metropolitans,  at 
their  investiture  with  the  pallium,  an  oath  to  this  effect. 
Hincmar  was  the  most  learned  canonist  of  the  age  :  but  so 
low  was  the  general  standard  of  scholarship  and  of  criti- 
cism at  that  time  that  he  could  not  expose  the  forgery. 
He  did  not  deny  the  genuineness  of  the  decretals  as  he 
ought,  but  resisted  their  authority.  Nicholas,  of  course, 
prevailed. 

But  we  should  misunderstand  Nicholas  and  the  men 
of  that  age  if  we  supposed  that  they  suddenly,  and  by 
one  gigantic  stride,  so  enormously  overleaped  the  eternal 
barriers  of  truth,  and,  unaided  and  uninfluenced  by  pre- 
ceding generations,  at  once  completed,  like  Satan  and 
his  workmen  in  hell,  the  vast  fabric  of  falsehood,  so  that 
at  once  "  the  ascending  pile  stood  fixed  in  stately  height." 
Neither  communities  nor  individuals  become  suddenly 
thus  corrupt.  The  conscience  of  the  church  had  been 
seared  as  with  a  hot  iron,  and  she  had  spoken  lies  in 
hypocrisy,  long  before  Nicholas.  These  portentous  re- 
sults were  but  the  mature  fruit  of  seed  early  sown  and 
plants  assiduously  cultivated  -from  almost  the  earliest 
ages  of  the  church.  One  who  comes  fresh  from  the  pure 
morality  of  the  New  Testament,  consigning  all  liars  to 
the  lake  of  fire,  finds  it  impossible  to  utter  the  feelings 
of  shame  and  disappointment  which  agitate  the  mind 
when  the  history  of  the  opinions  and  practices  of  the 
early  ages  on  the  subject  of  pious  frauds  is  first  unfolded. 
24* 


282        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

When,  however,  the  power  of  these  first  emotions  has 
somewhat  subsided,  and  he  attempts  to  take  a  philosoph- 
ical view  of  the  facts,  he  finds  in  depraved  human  nature 
a  deep  foundation  for  such  frauds,  and  soon  discovers 
that  a  propensity  to  them  is  not  limited  to  the  Romish 
church,  but  that  even  in  the  Protestant  world  there  is  a 
constant  temptation  to  fall  into  them.  For  a  more  full 
illustration  of  this  dangerous  tendency,  we  refer  to  an 
able  essay  of  Archbishop  Whately  on  Pious  Frauds  in 
his  work  entitled  the  Errors  of  Romanism  traced  to 
their  Origin  in  Human  Nature. 

"We  shall,  therefore,  proceed  to  speak  of  the  general 
nature  of  pious  fraud  ;  the  early  introduction  of  it  into 
the  Christian  church  ;  of  its  pernicious  effects  in  the 
earlier  ages  upon  the  literature  and  history  of  the  Chris- 
tian body  ;  its  most  perfect  development  in  the  forged 
decretals,  in  the  frauds  of  Baronius,  Bellarmine,  and 
others  ;  the  subsequent  power  and  state  of  the  system 
among  the  Romanists,  and  finally  among  the  Puseyites. 
In  a  field  so  extensive,  only  a  general  sketch  can  be  ex- 
pected in  a  brief  essay. 


PIOUS  FRAUDS. 

Pious  frauds,  as  defined  by  Whately,  are  "  those  which 
any  one  employs  and  justifies  to  himself,  as  conducing, 
according  to  his  view,  to  the  defence  or  promotion  of 
true  religion."  "  There  is  in  such  conduct,"  he  remarks, 
"  a  union  of  sincerity  and  insincerity  —  of  conscientious- 
ness in  respect  to  the  end,  and  unscrupulous  dishonesty 
as  to  the  means  ;  for  without  one  of  these  there  could  be 
no  fraud,  and  without  the  other  it  could  in  no  sense  be 
termed  a  pious  fraud." 


THE  FORGEEIES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       283 

It  is,  therefore,  only  a  specific  case  under  the  general 
diabolical  maxim,  that  the  end  sanctifies  the  means  —  a 
doctrine  which  God  has  emphatically  condemned,  by  de- 
claring that  the  damnation  is  just  of  all  who  teach,  Let 
us  do  evil  that  good  may  come. 

Yet  is  it  not  still  an  oft-disputed  question  among  us, 
whether  a  lie  is  in  any  case  justifiable?  E.g.:  Is  it  right 
to  lie  to  a  highwayman  in  order  to  save  our  money  or  our 
life?  So,  too,  the  question  may  be  raised,  "Was  it  not 
right  for  Rahab  to  save  the  spies  by  a  lie,  and  for  Jael 
to  deceive  Barak,  the  enemy  of  the  Jews,  in  order  to 
destroy  him  ?  It  may  be  asked,  Did  not  Samuel  deceive 
when  he  said,  I  am  come  to  sacrifice  to  the  Lord,  when 
yet  his  real  and  main  end  was  to  anoint  David  as  king  ? 
Yet  God  directed  him  so  to  do. 

"We  refer  to  these  things  to  show  that,  if  the  early 
Christians  were  tempted  to  use  pious  frauds,  there  were 
materials  enough  of  easy  self-deception  at  hand.  And  if 
any  one  will  look  at  the  temptation  in  advocating  a  great 
and  good  cause,  even  at  this  day,  to  select  and  state  only 
facts  adapted  to  excite  the  public  mind,  and  produce  lib- 
erality, and  to  slur  over  unfavorable  facts,  he  will  see 
how  easy  it  is  to  be  led  to  overstate  or  falsely  to  color 
facts,  or.  to  suppress  what  truly  belongs  to  a  full  presen- 
tation of  the  subject  considered. 

In  addition  to  the  case  of  temptation  which  we  have 
stated,  Whately  supposes  eight  cases  more,  in  which, 
even  among  .Protestants,  there  might  be  a  temptation  to 
employ  pious  fraud.  And  even  these  he  specifies,  not  as 
exhausting  the  cases,  but  as  illustrating  the  extent  and 
power  of  the  temptation.  He  refers  also  to  the  heathen 
legislators  and  philosophers  who  encouraged  or  connived 
at  a  system  of  mythology  which  they  disbelieved,  in 
order  that  they  might,  through  fear  of  the  wrath  of  the 


284        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

gods  and  of  Tartarus  and  the  hope  of  Elysium,  keep  the 
populace  in  order.  Their  statesmen  deluded  and  over- 
awed the  populace  with  oracles  and  prodigies,  just  as  the 
priests  of  the  Romish  and  Greek  churches  have  with 
false  miracles  and  revelations.  The  present  use  of  fraud 
and  forgeries  to  gain  important  political  ends  or  to  save 
the  country  we  need  but  advert  to  as  of  the  same  general 
kind.  And  many  even  now  attempt  to  use  similar  influ- 
ences in  governing  children. 

Also  he  remarks,  that  when  the  process  has  once  com- 
menced, and  some  falsehood  has  been  wrought  into  a  sys- 
tem regarded  as  in  the  main  sound,  there  is  a  temptation 
to  tolerate  it,  through  fear  of  greater  evil  in  destroying 
reverence  for  the  whole  system  or  of  losing  influence  in 
assailing  it.  We  thought  it  necessary  to  take  this  gen- 
eral view  before  coming  to  exhibit  the  development  of 
these  principles  in  the  primitive  church. 

The  mass  on  whom  Christianity  operated  had  been  al- 
ready degraded  by  such  maxims  and  practices  in  the 
pagan  world  ;  and  they  were  not  thoroughly  and  in  a 
moment  purged  of  their  pollutions  when  they  became 
Christians.  Moreover  a  higher  power  of  fraud  prepared 
through  them  the  way  for  results  of  which  they  little 
dreamed  when  they  began  their  work  of  promoting  truth 
by  the  use  of  fraud.  Let  us  now  consider  the  early  in- 
troduction into  the  church  of  the  system  of  pious  frauds. 

Mosheim  states  (Cent.  II.,  vol*.  i.  p.  130)  that  the  Pla- 
tonists  and  Pythagoreans  deemed  it  not  only  lawful,  but 
commendable,  to  deceive  and  to  lie  for  the  sake  of  truth 
and  piety.  The  Jews  in  Egypt  learned  from  them  this 
sentiment  even  before  the  days  of  Christ.  From  both 
this  vice  early  spread  among  Christians.  Books  were 
forged  under  the  names  of  eminent  men  ;  also  the  Sibyl- 
line verses  were  fabricated  by  some  Christian,  in  order 


THE  FORGERIES  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  285 

to  bring  idolaters  to  "believe  in  Christianity.  The  pa- 
gans were  indignant  at  this  forgery,  which  they  ascribed 
to  Christians.  (See  Origen  contra  Celsum.)  He  also 
tells  us  (Cent.  III.,  pp.  183, 184)  that  a  similar  mode  of  ar- 
gument was  used  by  Origen  and  others.  From  such 
principles  came  the  forged  Apostolic  Canons  and  Con- 
stitutions, the  Recognitions  of  Clement,  and  the  works 
of  Dionysius  the  Areopagite  in  the  fourth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies. The  system  of  pious  frauds  was  adopted  even 
by  Ambrose,  Hilary,  Augustine,  Gregory  Nazianzen,  Jer- 
ome, and  Sulpitius  Severus,  in  the  Life  of  St.  Martin. 
Thus  was  the  way  prepared  by  Satan  for  the  deepest 
delusions  of  the  middle  ages. 

Gieseler  (vol.  i.  p.  298)  gives  passages  from  Jerome  and 
John  Cassian  in  which  the  principles  of  the  system  are 
unfolded.  The  same  fathers  who  thus  wrote  and  prac- 
tised ascribed  accommodation  to  Jesus  and  the  apostles. 
Cassian  argues  its  lawfulness  from  the  case  of  Rahab  and 
of  Delilah.  Though  they  used  lies,  they  were  aiming  at 
great  and  good  ends.  Gieseler  tells  us,  (vol.  i.  p.  298,) 
speaking  of  spurious  writings  up  to  A.  D.  200,  that  their 
purpose  was  to  encourage  the  persecuted,  to  convince  the 
unbelieving,  and  to  give  the  sanction  of  antiquity  to  cer- 
tain opinions. 

For  such  ends  old  spurious  writings  of  the  Jews  were 
interpolated  —  e.  g.,  the  Book  of  Enoch  and  the  Fourth 
Book  of  Ezra.  Others  were  forged  —  e.  g.,  the  Testament 
of  the  Twelve  Patriarchs,  the  Ascension  of  Isaiah,  the 
Shepherd  of  Hermas,  the  Books  of  Hystaspes,  the  Acts 
of  Pilate,  the  Sibylline  Prophecies,  <fec.  All  these  are 
designed  to  promote  millenarian  views. 

"Waddington  (pp.  54,  55)  traces  many  of  the  forgeries  in 
the  names  of  apostles  and  fathers  to  an  imitation  of 
pagan  philosophers,  who,  without  attempting  delusion,  in- 


286        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

troduced  ancient  worthies  as  uttering  their  own  opinions. 
Christianity,  too,  he  tells  ns,  was  then  in  the  hands  of 
Greeks  and  Africans,  to  whom  our  maxims  of  moralit 
were  not  known.     "  We  shall  never,"  says  he,  "  do  justic 
to  the  history  of  our  religion  unless  we  continually  be 
in  mind  the  low  condition  of  society  and  morals  existing 
among  the  people  to  whom  it  was  first  delivered." 

Some  of  the  passages  adduced  by  Gieseler  we  will 
translate.  Jerome  (Epist.  xxx.  al.  1.,  to  Pammachins) 
thus  defends  the  propriety  of  lying  in  certain  cases  :  "  It 
is  one  thing  to  write  controversially,  another  didactically, 
or  dogmatically,  (yv/ju/aa-nxws,  ^o/jxa-ixwg.)  In  the  former 
the  controversy  is  not  restricted  by  fixed  principles,  and 
he  who  is  replying  to  an  antagonist  may  state  now  one 
thing,  now  another  ;  may  argue  as  he  pleases  ;  may  de- 
clare one  thing,  but  act  on  the  opposite  supposition  ;  may 
pretend  to  show  bread  (as  the  saying  is)  when  he  has  in 
his  hands  nothing  but  a  stone.  But  in  the  second  kind 
of  writing,  openhearted  frankness,  and,  if  I  may  so  say, 
candor  and  ingenuousness,  are  necessary." 

For  evidence  that  they  were  disposed  to  allow  far  too 
great  a  latitude  of  accommodation,  (oixovofwa.)  attributing 
it  in  the  same  extent  to  Jesus  and  the  apostles,  see 
Suicer,  s.  v.  <fuyxa<ra8a.fts.  —  T.  ii.  p.  1067. 

In  this  way  Jerome  wished  to  explain  the  passage, 
(Gal.  ii.  11,  seq.,)  but  was  opposed  by  Augustine,  whose 
principles  were  more  strict.  (See  his  writings  On  Lying 
and  Against  Lying.  See  correspondence  on  this  point 
between  them,  Epist.  Hieron.,  Ep.  Ixv.  Ixvii.-lxxiii.  Ixxvi.) 
Chrysostom  On  the  Priesthood,  vol.  i.  5,  lays  down  very 
questionable  principles ;  concerning  the  lawfulness  of  de- 
ception in  certain  cases.  He  was  followed  in  this  by  his 
pupil,  John  Cassian,  Coll.  xvii.  8,  seq.  ;  e.  g.,  cap.  xvii. : 
"  Therefore  we  ought  to  regard  and  use  falsehood  as  if  it 


THE  FORGERIES  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.       287 

were  of  the  nature  of  hellebore,  which,  if  taken  when 
threatened  by  a  deadly  disease,  is  salutary,  but  if  without 

e  necessity  caused  by  such  danger,  results  in  immediate 
eath.  For  God  not  merely  investigates  and  judges  our 
words  and  actions,  but  also  regards  our  purpose  and 
intention.  But  if  he  sees  that  any  thing  has  been  done 
or  promised  by  any  one  for  the  sake  of  eternal  salvation 
and  with  that  perception  of  results  which  proceeds  from 
divine  contemplation,  although  it  appears  to  men  shame- 
less and  unjust,  yet  he,  regarding  the  interior  piety  of  the 
heart,  will  consider  in  his  decision,  not  the  sound  of  the 
words,  but  the  purpose  of  the  will ;  for  the  end  of  an 
undertaking  and  the  disposition  of  the  agent  are  to  be  con- 
sidered. In  this  way  some,  as  has  been  remarked  before, 
have  been  able  to  secure  justification  by  lying,  (e.  g.,  Ra- 
hab,  Josh.  ii. ;)  and  others,  by  telling  the  truth,  have  in- 
curred the  penalty  of  eternal  death,  (e.  g.,  Delilah,  Judg. 
xvi.") 

Yet  at  this  time  they  tithed  mint,  anise,  and  cumin. 
The  neglect  of  ecclesiastical  forms  was  a  great  crime. 
All  oaths,  the  taking  of  interest,  self-defence,  capital  pun- 
ishments, and  second  marriages  were  reckoned  as  crimes. 
In  comparison  with  the  violation  of  mere  ceremonial  laws, 
a  disregard  of  the  weightier  matters  of  truth  and  justice 
was  deemed  a  venial  offence,  or  even  a  virtue,  if  meant 
for  good  ends.  Hence  we  can  see  how  men  could  come 
to  such  a  state  of  mental  delusion  as  to  perpetrate  for 
good  ends  the  abominable  imposition  of  the  invention  of 
the  cross.  Hence  we  can  see  how  even  Ambrose  could 
conspire  with  a  butcher  to  hide  bones  and  blood  under 
the  pavement  of  his  church,  and  then  pretend  to  be  in- 
formed by  a  special  revelation  that  the  relics  of  the  mar- 
tyrs Protasius  and  Gervasius,  of  whom  no  one  had  ever 
heard  before,  were  hid  there,  and  that  he  should  dig 


288         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

them  up,  and  prepare  for  them  a  shrine,  and  transfer  their 
remains  to  it  with  the  solemn  mockery  of  prayer  and 
preaching,  and  that  miracles  of  healing  should  be 
wrought  by  these  remains,  and  that  the  bones  and  blooc 
should  be  sold  for  a  great  price.  "Was  not  the  end  a 
good  one  ?  Was  it  not  important  that  the  church  of 
Milan  should  have  influence  and  wealth  ?  Are  not  these 
means  of  doing  good?  But,  alas!  she  had  no  martyrs. 
Hence  there  could  be  no  shrine,  no  saint  worship,  no 
miracles  of  healing,  no  casting  out  of  devils,  and,  above 
all,  no  precious  gifts.  Why,  then,  should  there  not  be  an 
invention  of  martyrs  as  well  as  an  invention  of  the 
cross  ?  To  be  sure,  if  it  were  to  be  found  out,  it  might 
seem  a  shameless  fraud  to  man  ;  but  God  would  judge 
in  view,  not  of  the  words,  but  of  the  purpose  of  the  heart. 

Hence,  too,  the  working  of  false  miracles  for  a  good 
end  admitted  of  an  easy  justification,  and  no  less  the 
forging  of  saints  and  the  ascription  to  real  saints  of  mir- 
acles which  they  never  wrought.  Hence  the  deluge  of 
saints'  lives  and  miracles  with  which  the  world  was 
flooded  and  the  Romish  world  still  is  flooded ;  for  in 
Alban  Butler  these  forged  saints  keep  their  place  even 
to  this  day.  Hence,  too,  we  find  in  leading  men,  both  in 
the  Latin  and  Greek  churches,  shameless  lying  for  any 
ends  that  interested  men  could  convince  themselves  were 
good  ends. 

The  celebrated  Photius,  no  doubt,  regarded  it  as  of 
great  importance  that  he  should  be  patriarch  of  Constan- 
tinople for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  good  of  the  church. 
Hence  he  did  not  hesitate  to  give  to  the  emperor  a  letter 
in  the  name  of  Ignatius  severely  censuring  the  emperor, 
and  another  in  the  name  of  the  pope  in  favor  of  Photius, 
which  Eustralius,  arriving  at  Constantinople  in  the  habit 
of  a  monk,  had  delivered  to  him.  And  yet  there  is  no 


THE   FORGERIES   OP   THE   MIDDLE   AGES.  289 

reason  to  doubt  that  he  had  caused  these  letters  to  be 
forged  in  order  to  get  Ignatius,  whom  the  pope  declared 
to  be  the  true  patriarch,  out  of  the  way.  Lotharius  (or 
Bishop  Adventinus  of  Mentz  for  him)  did  not  hesitate  to 
forge  the  tale  that  he  was  married  to  "Waldrada,  when 
young,  by  the  command  of  the  Emperor  Lotharius,  his 
father,  and  was  afterwards  forced  by  Count  Herbert  to 
marry  his  sister  ;  and  Bishop  Adventinus  related  it  as  a 
fact  in  the  council  of  Aix-la-Chapelle.  He  also  wrote  for 
him  a  lying  letter  to  the  pope,  and  finally  lied  to  excuse 
himself  to  the  pope. 

When  we  meet  with  such  things  in  the  leading  charac- 
ters of  the  nominal  church,  when  we  find  in  Gregory  VII. 
a  system  of  deliberate  lying,  adapted  and  designed  to  re- 
duce the  world  to  one  vast  feudal  monarchy,  of  which  he 
should  be  the  head  and  the  kings  of  the  earth  his  vassals, 
instead  of  feeling  that  we  are  in  the  kingdom  of  God, 
we  seem  to  be  involved  in  the  deepest  gloom  of  hell  it- 
self, and  are,  for  a  moment,  overwhelmed  with  horror  and 
amazement.  But,  when  we  trace  the  system  to  its  origin, 
we  see  that  a  single  key  is  enough  to  open  the  bottomless 
pit  ;  and,  as  we  read  the  corrupt  maxims  of  some  of  the 
leading  doctors  of  the  church,  we  seem  to  see  a  star  fall 
from  heaven  to  earth,  and  take  the  key  of  the  bottomless 
pit  and  open  it,  and  to  behold  the  smoke  as  of  a  great 
furnace  arising  from  the  pit,  till  the  sun  and  the  air  are 
darkened  by  reason  of  the  smoke  of  the  pit.  Never  was 
there  such  a  lesson,  as  it  regards  the  danger  of  tampering 
with  the  truth  even  in  the  least  degree,  as  may  be  read 
in  the  history  of  the  church.  Let  us  look  at  the  perni- 
cious effects  of  the  system  of  pious  frauds  on  the  litera- 
ture and  moral  condition  of  earlier  and  of  subsequent 
ages.  Waddington,  speaking  of  the  literary  forgeries  that 
corrupted  and  disgraced  the  ante-Nicene  church,  says, 
25 


290       THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

"  Their  immediate  effect  was  exceedingly  injurious."     We 
will  hint  at  some  of  their  effects. 

1.  They  tended  to  degrade  the  moral  character  of  the 
age  by  the  circulation  of  degrading  materials  of  thought. 
The  truths  of  God's  word  are  pure,  simple,  elevating. 
The  devil  might  well  exult  to  see  the  people  of  God  neg- 
lecting such  heavenly  food  and  turning  away  to  feed  on 
false  gospels,  Sibylline  oracles,  spurious  saints'  lives,  and 
degraded  and  degrading  acts  and  decisions  of  the  apostles. 

2.  They  have  immeasurably  injured  the  interests  of  all 
subsequent  ages.     The  welfare  of  all  ages  is  involved  in 
the  correctness  of  the  historical  and  literary  documents 
of  the  early  ages.     Nowhere  is  historical  truth  more  im- 
portant ;  and  yet,  through  the  influence  of  the  system  of 
pious  frauds,  nowhere  is  it  harder  to  be  discerned.     The 
decision  of  whole  controversies  is  prevented  by  the  doubt- 
ful state  of  early  documents.     To  illustrate  this,  it  is  suf- 
ficent  to  refer  to  the  interminable  controversies  as  to 
what  Ignatius  actually  said  concerning  bishops.    We  know 
that  his  letters  have  been  more  or  less  interpolated  for 
purposes  of  pious  fraud  ;  but  who  can  tell  how  much  ? 
By  this  uncertainty  whole  controversies  are  kept  alive 
that  otherwise  would  easily  be  settled.     Let  any  one  read 
Binius,  Baronius,  and  Bellarmine,  and  then  try  to  strike 
out  all  that  is  spurious  and  forged  in  their  writings,  and 
he  will  find  himself  in  a  labyrinth  at  once. 

3.  The  earlier  forgeries  furnished  principles  and  prece- 
dents for  worse  deeds  ;  and  very  soon  the  lowest  depths 
were  reached  by  men  speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy  and  hav- 
ing their  consciences  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron.     Bad  as 
are  the  forged  decretals,  they  are  no  worse,  except  in  ex- 
tent, than  many  preceding  forgeries.     Nothing  can  be 
worse  than  the  attempts  by  Popes  Zosimus  and  Celestine 
to  palm  off  the  canons  of  Sardica  as  those  of  Nice  be- 


THE  FORGERIES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  291 

cause  the  council  of  Nice  was   an  ecumenical  council 
and  that  of  Sardica  was  not. 

4.  They  provoke  God  to  abandon  the  church,  and  thus 
to  send  strong  delusion  to  believe  a  lie.  Whately  well 
says,  that  how  far  any  one  who  propagates  a  lie  may  be 
himself  deceived  or  may  be  guilty  of  pious  fraud,  and 
how  far  a  fraud  is  a  pious  fraud,  God  only  knows.  Prob- 
ably most  have  begun  in  wilful  deceit  and  advanced  to- 
wards superstitious  belief.  Those  who  report  a  lie  often 
believe  it.  The  curse  on  those  who  do  not  love  the  truth 
is  strong  delusion  to  believe  a  lie.  Thus  a  man  intent  on 
an  end  may  first  deceive  himself  into  a  belief  that  it  is 
a  good  end,  and  then  that  it  is  right  to  lie  to  gain  it,  and 
finally  that  the  lie  is  a  truth.  Many  are  conscientious  in 
the  sense  that  they  have  led  their  conscience  to  approve 
the  purposes  of  the  will,  and  not  that  their  conscience 
has  led  their  will  to  form  its  purposes.  They  persevere 
in  wrong  till  they  convince  themselves  that  it  is  right. 


THE  FORGED  DECRETALS. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  most  perfect  development  of 
this  system  in  the  forged  decretals. 

We  have  already  taken  a  brief  view  of  these.  Let  us 
more  fully  develop  the  great  mystery  of  iniquity. 

The  ultimate  result  of  them  was  twofold  —  to  concen- 
trate the  bishops  round  the  pope  and  subject  them  to  his 
authority  ;  and  to  raise  the  ecclesiastical  above  the  civil 
power. 

To  accomplish  this,  they  seemed  to  propose  to  defend 
the  bishops  against  the  tyranny  of  their  own  metropoli- 
tans and  of  their  civil  rulers.  Before  the  Papal  despot- 
ism was  established  bishops  were  tried  and  judged  by  the 


292        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

bishops  of  a  metropolitan  province  under  their  metropol- 
itan, and  without  appeal  to  the  pope.  Of  course  they 
were  liable  to  injustice  ;  and  if  the  metropolitan  were 
imperious  and  haughty,  as  was  often  the  case,  they  were 
to  expect  often  to  experience  it.  Hence  very  likely  the 
origin  of  the  canons  of  the  council  of  Sardica.  But  as 
these  only  authorized  the  pope  to  command  a  new  trial  in 
the  province,  the  main  and  ultimate  power  was,  after  all, 
not  in  the  pope,  but  in  the  metropolitan.  But  to  remove 
the  case  to  the  court  of  Rome,  and  to  put  the  power  of  a 
final  decision  into  the  hands  of  the  pope,  would  effectu- 
ally break  down  the  power  of  the  metropolitans.  And 
if  at  any  time  they  were  guilty  of  abusing  that  power,  it 
would  create  in  the  bishops  a  wish  to  see  it  done.  In 
like  manner  bishops  might  wish  a  defence  of  their  spirit- 
ual power  against  their  kings. 

Things  were  tending  in  this  direction  when  the  forged 
decretals  made  their  appearance.  They  purport  to  be 
decretal  letters  written  by  the  early  popes,  from  Clement 
downwards  to  Gregory  the  Great.  They  were  published 
in  a  collection  with  other  canons.  This  collection  of  can- 
ons and  decretals,  in  the  name  of  St.  Isidore,  consisted  of 
three  parts. 

1.  Fifty-nine  pseudo-Isidorian    decretals,  besides    two 
from  Clement  to  James,  already  in  existence,  going  down 
to  Melchiades. 

2.  Canons  of  councils,  chiefly  genuine  Isidorian. 

3.  Thirty-five    pseudo-Isidorian,  mixed  with    genuine, 
epistles  from  Sylvester  to  Gregory  the  Great. 

The  bishops  universally  received  them.  They  were  like 
the  horse  which  was  so  intent  on  conquering  the  stag  that 
he  took  the  bridle  into  his  mouth  from  the  man,  and  the 
saddle  upon  his  back,  and  allowed  him  to  mount,  and  was 
from  that  time  a  slave.  The  pope  conquered  the  metro- 


THE   FORGERIES   OF   THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  293 

politans  through  the  bishops  ;  and  as  soon  as  he  had  done 
this  the  bishops  were  ipso  facto  enslaved.  These  decretals 
seemed  to  favor  the  patriarchs,  and  yet  subjected  them  to 
the  pope's  authority  to  act  in  his  name.  All  that  was 
taken  from  the  metropolitans  fell  finally  to  the  Papal  see. 

To  complete  the  picture,  we  will  briefly  restate  some  con- 
nected facts.  The  donation  of  Constantino  was  promul- 
gated in  the  time  of  Adrian  L,  and  was  based  on,  and  con- 
nected with,  a  fabulous  narrative  of  the  baptism  and  cure  of 
Constantine  of  the  leprosy  at  Rome  by  Pope  Sylvester.  In 
token  of  gratitude  Constantine  withdrew  from  Rome  and 
founded  Constantinople,  and  gave  to  the  pope  Rome,  Italy, 
and  the  provinces  of  the  West. 

The  history  and  decrees  of  a  council  that  never  met 
were  also  forged.  It  was  said  to  have  been  held  at  Rome 
in  the  days  of  Sylvester  :  the  aim  and  result  of  it  were  to 
exalt  the  power  of  the  pope. 

We  have  given  portions  of  these  precious  documents 
from  the  history  of  councils  by  Binius,  published  under 
the  sanction  of  the  pope,  and  defended  by  Binius  even 
after  Calvin  and  others  had  exposed  the  forgeries  of  the 
decretals.  Indeed  the  Papacy  held  on  to  them  till  they 
were  irresistibly  wrung  from  its  unwilling  grasp. 

The  influence  and  effects  of  these  decretals  are  thus  set 
forth  by  the  learned  civilian  Daunou,  a  Roman  Catholic  : 
"  So  early  as  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  the  decretals 
of  Isidore  had  planted  the  germs  of  pontifical  omnipo- 
tence. Gratian  gathered  the  fruit  of  these  germs  and 
made  them  still  more  fruitful ;  the  court  of  Rome  being 
represented  as  the  source  of  all  irrefragable  decision,  as 
the  universal  tribunal  which  decided  all  differences,  dissi- 
pated all  doubts,  cleared  up  all  difficulties.  She  was  con- 
sulted from  all  quarters  by  metropolitans,  by  bishops,  by 
chapters,  by  abbeys,  by  monks,  by  lords,  by  princes  even, 
25* 


294        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

and  by  the  untitled  faithful.  There  was  no  limit  to  the 
pontifical  correspondence  but  such  as  was  imposed  by  the 
tardiness  of  the  means  of  communication.  The  affluence 
of  questions  multiplied  bulls,  briefs,  epistles  ;  and  from 
those  fictitious  decretals  ascribed  to  the  popes  of  the  first 
ages  there  sprang  up  and  multiplied,  from  the  time  of  Eu- 
gene III.,  thousands  of  responses  and  decrees  which  were 
but  too  authentic.  All  affairs  —  religious,  civil,  judiciary, 
domestic  —  then  were  more  or  less  embarrassed  by  pre- 
tended connections  with  the  spiritual  power.  General  in- 
terests, local  controversies,  individual  quarrels  all  went 
in  the  last  resort,  and  sometimes  in  the  first  instance,  to 
the  pope  ;  and  the  court  of  Rome  acquired  this  influence 
over  the  details  of  human  life,  (if  we  may  so  speak.)  which 
is  of  all  others  the  most  formidable,  precisely  because  each 
of  its  effects,  isolated  from  the  others,  appeared  to  be  of 
no  great  consequence.  Isidore  and  Gratian  transformed 
the  pope  into  a  universal  administrator." 

The  agency  of  Gratian  in  this  matter,  to  which  Daunou 
here  refers,  was  in  brief  this  :  In  1152  he  compiled  a  col- 
lection, of  canons,  commonly  designated  as  the  "  Decree 
of  Gratian."  It  was  called  by  him  the  concord  of  dis- 
cordant canons,  (concordantia  discordantium  canonum.)  The 
study  of  the  civil  law  had  just  been  revived  in  Italy  by  the 
discovery  of  the  Pandects  of  Justinian.  But,  as  the  eccle- 
siastical power  was  fast  gaining  the  ascendency  over  the 
civil  power,  a  similar  storehouse  of  the  principles  of  eccle- 
siastical law  was  needed.  Such  the  Decree  of  Gratian 
became.  It  is  divided  into  three  parts  :  one  devoted  to 
principles  and  ecclesiastical  persons ;  the  second  to  judg- 
ments ;  the  third  to  things. 

Of  its  character  as  a  code  Daunou  thus  speaks  :  "  Rep- 
etitions, impertinences,  disorder,  errors  in  proper  names, 
mistakes  in  quotations  are  the  least  faults  of  the  compiler. 


THE  FORGERIES  OP  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  295 

Mutilated  passages,  chimerical  canons,  false  decretals,  all 
sorts  of  lies  abound  in  .this  monstrous  production.  Its 
success  was  only  the  more  rapid  on  that  account.  It  was 
explained  in  the  schools,  cited  in  the  tribunals,  and  in- 
voked in  treaties.  It  had  almost  become  the  public  law 
of  Europe,  when  the  return  of  light  dissipated  by  slow 
degrees  the  gross  imposture.  By  it  the  clergy  were  held 
not  to  be  amenable  to  answer  in  the  secular  tribunals  ;  the 
civil  powers  were  subjected  to  ecclesiastical  supremacy ; 
the  state  of  persons  or  the  acts  which  determine  it  were 
regulated,  validated,  or  annulled  absolutely  by  the  canons 
and  the  clergy  ;  the  Papal  power  was  enfranchised  from 
all  restrictions  ;  the  sanction  of  all  laws  of  the  church  was 
ascribed  to  the  holy  see  —  that  see  itself  being  independent 
of  the  laws  published  and  confirmed  by  itself." 

By  whom  Gratian  was  employed  to  perform  this  work 
the  facts  just  stated  sufficiently  show.  He  was  but  a  tool 
of  the  Papacy.  Through  him  the  man  of  sin  erected  his 
throne  by  reducing  the  forged  decretals  to  a  legal  system. 
A  translation  of  a  few  passages  from  Gratian  will  give  a 
clear  idea  of  the  prevailing  spirit  of  the  work.  He  is 
teaching  the  doctrine  that  the  pope  is  not  of  necessity 
subject  even  to  his  own  laws,  and  that  if  he  submits  to 
them  it  is  only  by  a  voluntary  humiliation  by  way  of  ex- 
ample to  others. 

"As  Christ,  the  Lord  of  the  Sabbath  and  of  the  law, 
submitted  himself  to  the  law  of  the  Sabbath,  so  the  pon- 
tiffs in  the  seat  of  supremacy  manifest  reverence  for  the 
canons  established  either  by  themselves  or  by  others 
authorized  by  them  ;  and,  by  humbling  themselves  to  obey 
them,  they  augment  their  authority,  so  that  they  may 
present  them  to  others  as  their  supreme  law."  Again : 
"  Sometimes,  either  by  new  enactments,  or  definitions,  or 
by  contravening  the  canons,  they  proclaim  themselves 
lords  and  creators  of  the  laws."  Again  :  "  Upon  others 


296         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

is  imposed  the  necessity  of  obedience  to  the  canons  ;  but 
it  has  been  made  manifest  that  in  the  chief  pontiffs  there 
is  an  authority  to  obey  at  their  pleasure,  so  that,  by  ob- 
serving their  own  decrees,  they  may  show  to  others  that 
they  are  not  to  be  contemned.  This  they  do  after  the  ex- 
ample of  Christ,  who  himself  observed  as  an  example,  and 
that  he  might  thus  sanctify  them,  those  sacraments,  the 
observance  of  which  he  enjoined  upon  his  church." 

Here  we  see  the  roots  of  those  highest  claims  of  Papal 
omnipotence,  and  of  dispensing  above  right,  and  contrary 
to  right,  which  subsequent  canonists  carried  to  a  still 
more  blasphemous  extreme  —  exalting  the  pope  not  only 
to  an  equality  with  God,  but  above  all  that  is  called.  God 
or  is  worshipped. 

All  these  principles,  first  drawn  from  the  fountain  of 
the  forged  decretals,  still  slumber  in  the  canon  law,  like 
a  sword  returned  for  a  time  to  its  sheath,  or  like  the  re- 
tracted and  hidden  claws  of  a  tiger.  But  let  the  state  of 
the  nation  be  so  changed,  and  circumstances  so  favor  that 
it  can  be  done,  and  the  sword  will  be  again  unsheathed, 
and  the  pontifical  tiger  will  again  rend  the  subjugated 
nations  with  his  claws. 

To  translate  long  passages  from  these  forged  decretals 
would  be  tiresome  alike  to  the  translator  and  to  the 
reader.  To  form  a  conception  of  their  matter  and  style, 
we  need  only  to  suppose  an  ecclesiastic,  capable  of  writing 
in  the  Latin  style  of  the  middle  ages,  first  raising  the  in- 
quiry, What  is  needed  to  exalt  the  ecclesiastical  entirely 
above  the  civil  power?  and  finally  to  concentrate  all 
power  in  the  pope,  and  then  writing  all  that  he  could  con- 
ceive of  to  his  heart's  content  in  the  name  of  the  ancient 
popes.  A  few  specimens  must  suffice.  Hear  how,  in  the 
first  epistle  of  Pius,  A.  D.  147,  the  bishops  are  defended 
against  lay  influence  :  "  Let  not  the  sheep  censure  their 


THE   FORGERIES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  297 

shepherd,  nor  the  laity  accuse  a  bishop,  nor  the  populace 
reprehend  him  ;  since  the  disciple  is  not  above  his  lord, 
nor  the  servant  above  his  master.  But  the  bishops  are 
to  be  judged  by  God,  who  has  chosen  them  as  his  eyes. 
*  *  *  Of  this  the  Master  has  given  an  example,  when 
he  drove  from  the  temple  the  buying  and  selling  priests, 
by  himself,  and  not  by  another."  The  judgment  of  God 
on  bishops  is  of  course  to  be  exercised  through  the  pope. 
Hence  the  forger  tells  us,  through  Zephyrinus,  A.  D.  208, 
Ep.  i.,  "  Let  not  the  patriarchs  or  primates  who  try  an 
accused  bishop  pass  a  definite  sentence  till  it  has  been 
sanctioned  by  apostolic  (i.  e.,  Papal)  authority."  He  then 
proceeds  to  give  rules  as  to  accusers,  witnesses,  and  the 
trial,  and  then  concludes  :  "  Let  the  ultimate  determination 
of  his  case  be  brought  to  the  apostolic  seat,  that  there  it 
may  be  issued.  Nor  let  it  be  finally  determined  before  it 
is  sanctioned  by  the  authority  of  the  pontiff,  as  was  or- 
dained by  the  apostles  or  their  successors."  We  notice 
here,  as  through  all  of  these  forgeries,  a  constant  repetition 
and  superabundant  fulness,  as  if  the  writer  were  deter- 
mined to  make  assurance  doubly  sure  in  all  things  re- 
lating to  the  Papal  authority. 

To  concentrate  all  power  at  Rome,  we  find  passages 
like  this :  "  The  Roman  church,  through  the  merits  of 
Peter,  consecrated  by  the  word  of  the  Lord  and  sustained 
by  the  authority  of  the  holy  fathers,  holds  the  primacy 
among  all  the  other  churches.  To  her  the  highest  con- 
cerns, trials,  and  complaints  of  bishops,  and  also  the  im- 
portant interests  of  all  churches  are  to  be  referred  as  to 
the  head."  — Vigilius,  Ep.  ad  Profuturum. 

Again :  Zephyrinus,  Ep.  i.,  says,  "  All,  and  especially 
the  oppressed,  must  have  recourse  to  the  Roman  church, 
and  appeal  to  her  as  to  a  mother,  that  they  may  be  nour- 
ished by  her  breasts,  and  defended  by  her  authority,  and 


298        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

delivered  from  their  oppressions  ;  for  the  mother  neither 
can  nor  ought  to  forget  her  child." 

One  great  object  of  these  forgeries  is  to  give  authority 
to  Papal  decrees  as  such,  investing  them  with  the  power 
of  laws,  thus  making  the  pope  an  independent  legislator 
and  an  absolute  despot.  Hence  the  forger  in  the  name  of 
Damasus,  Ep.  iv.,  says,  "  All  the  decretals  and  the  statutes 
of  all  our  predecessors  which  have  been  promulgated  con- 
cerning the  ecclesiastical  orders,  and  the  discipline  of  the 
canons,  it  is  our  pleasure  and  decree  that  you  and  all 
bishops  and  priests  shall  observe ;  so  that,  if  any  one  shall 
infringe  them,  let  him  know  that  it  is  an  unpardonable 
offence." 

The  direct  result  of  all  this  was  to  exalt  the  canons  of 
the  pope  to  an  equality  with  the  canons  of  general  councils. 
Hence  in  the  canon  law  both  kinds  are  mixed  up  indiscrim- 
inately, and,  as  Daunou  well  remarks,  the  forged  decretals 
became  the  source  and  model  of  innumerable  and  genuine 
Papal  decretals  in  subsequent  ages.  Indeed  these  lying 
forgeries  have  been  so  thoroughly  digested  and  absorbed 
into  the  system  of  the  canon  law  that  to  this  day  they 
constitute  its  vital  principles,  its  very  life's  blood. 

At  the  hazard  of  being  tedious  we  will  give  a  few 
more  extracts  from  these  forgeries,  showing  in  what  man- 
ner, by  impudent  and  reiterated  assertions,  the  power  of 
the  Papacy  was  established.  The  forger  in  the  name  of 
Damasus,  Ep.  vi.,  says,  "  It  is  lawful  for  the  metropoli- 
tans, with  their  provincial  bishops,  to  investigate  the 
causes  of  the  bishops  and  other  weighty  ecclesiastical 
matters,  provided  the  bishops  are  all  present  and  agree ; 
but  to  define  and  decide  definitely  on  such  points,  or  to 
condemn  bishops  without  the  authority  of  this  seat,  is  not 
lawful ;  for  all,  if  it  be  necessary,  ought  to  appeal  to 
it  and  be  sustained  by  its  authority  ;  for,  as  you  know, 


THE  FORGERIES  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  299 

it -is  not  Catholic  to  convene  a  synod  without  its  sanc- 
tion." 

The  conduct  of  Hincmar  in  deposing  Rothade,  to  which 
we  have  before  adverted,  shows  plainly  that  he,  though  a 
learned  canonist,  had  admitted  no  such  principles  as 
these.  But  when  Nicholas  encountered  him,  nullified  his 
proceedings,  and  restored  Rothade,  he  fell  back  upon 
these  and  similar  passages  of  the  forged  decretals  for  his 
defence ;  and  certainly  nothing  could  be  better  fitted  to 
accomplish  his  purposes.  It  seems  as  if  this  passage  had 
been  forged  with  satanic  foresight  for  the  very  case  in 
hand.  Nor  is  it  to  be  wondered  at  that  Nicholas  exerted 
himself  to  the  uttermost  to  give  authority  to  a  system  by 
which  he  was  invested  with  such  absolute  power. 

In  the  decretum  of  Gratian  the  forged  materials  were 
mixed  up  with  the  old  and  genuine  canon  law  for  the 
sake  of  hiding  the  cheat.  In  his  endeavors  to  reconcile 
the  discordances  thus  produced,  Gratian  of  course  de- 
cided in  favor  of  the  new  Papal  law ;  and  as,  during  the 
subsequent  study  of  the  canon  law,  new  contradictions 
came  to  light,  the  popes  gave  new  decisions,  deciding  of 
course  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  the  forged 
decretals.  As  these  new  decretals  multiplied,  it  became 
necessary  to  reduce  them  to  system.  Hence  in  1234 
Gregory  IX.  employed  the  Dominican  Raimund  da  Pen- 
nafort  to  compile  a  new  collection  of  decretals  in  five 
books,  almost  entirely  composed  of  later  decretals,  and 
in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the  forged  decretals. 
To  this  Boniface  VIII.  added  a  sixth  book  in  five  parts. 
To  these,  five  books  of  Clementine  Constitutions,  by 
Clement  V.,  were  added,  and  also  certain  Extravagantes 
of  John  XXII.  and  five  books  of  Extravagantes  Com- 
munes. Such  was  the  spirit,  such  the  origin,  and  such 
the  progress  and  completion  of  the  canon  law.  The 


300        THE  PAPAL  COXSPIRACT  EXPOSED. 

leaven  of  the  old  canon  law,  retained  in  the  decretum  of 
Gratian,  so  far  as  it  was  inconsistent  with  the  new  law, 
was  purged  out,  and  the  Papacy  was  placed  on  the  basis 
on  which  it  has  since  stood  even  to  this  day. 

It  is,  indeed,  a  specimen  of  lying  and  forgery  on  a 
sublime  scale  ;  and  when  we  see  all  Christendom  trem- 
bling before  the  frown  of  the  pope,  and  the  intellect  of 
all  Europe  engaged  in  studying  and  commenting  on  this 
law,  then  we  see  completed  the  highest  and  most  as- 
tounding result  of  the  forged  literature  of  the  middle 
ages.  The  little  fountain  head  of  pious  fraud  which 
broke  out  in  the  early  ages  has  given  rise  to  a  mighty 
river,  emptying  itself  into  a  boundless  ocean  of  unfathom- 
able delusion  and  fraud. 

How  great  the  influence  of  these  forgeries  has  been 
may  be  learned  from  the  confessions  even  of  candid 
Roman  Catholics.  The  testimony  of  Daunou  has  been 
given.  Fleury,  though  not  so  severe,  is  no  less  explicit 
in  testifying  to  their  pernicious  influence  on  the  church. 
"With  him  coincides  Bossuet ;  and  the  celebrated  Charles 
Butler,  in  a  brief  account  of  the  Roman  and  the  canon 
law,  in  an.  appendix  to  his  Life  of  the  Chancellor 
D'Aguesseau,  does  not  hesitate  to  say,  "  To  the  com- 
pilations of  Isidore  and  Gratian,  one  of  the  greatest  mis- 
fortunes of  the  church,  the  claim  of  the  popes  to  temporal 
power  by  divine  right,  may  in  some  measure  be  attrib- 
uted. That  a  claim  so  unfounded  and  so  impious,  so 
detrimental  to  religion,  and  so  hostile  to  the  peace  of 
the  world  should  have  been  made  is  strange  ;  stranger 
yet  is  the  success  it  met  with." 

It  is  no  less  strange  that  so  intelligent  a  man  could 
not  discover  that  all  the  remaining  claims  of  the  pope 
are  alike  unfounded  and  impious,  detrimental  to  religion, 
and  hostile  to  the  peace  of  the  world. 


THE  FORGERIES   OP  THE  MIDDLE   AGES.  301 

In  view  of  such  facts  it  is  that  Gibbon  severely,  but 
justly,  remarks  that  the  Vatican  and  Lateran  were  an 
arsenal  and  manufactory,  which,  according  to  the  occa- 
sion, have  produced  or  concealed  a  various  collection  of 
false,  or  genuine,  or  corrupt,  or  suspicious  acts,  as  they 
tended  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  Romish  church. 
Before  the  end  of  the  eighth  century,  some  apostolical 
scribe,  perhaps  the  notorious  Isidore,  composed  the  decre- 
tals and  the  donation  of  Gonstantine  —  the  two  magic 
pillars  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  monarchy  of  the 
popes.  (Vol.  iii.  339.)  "This  humble  title,  'peccator,'  was 
ignorantly,  but  aptly,  turned  into  '  mercator ' —  his  merchan- 
dise was  indeed  profitable  :  a  few  sheets  of  paper  were 
sold  for  much  wealth  and  power.  The  edifice  has  subsisted 
after  the  foundations  have  been  undermined." — P.  340. 

To  form  any  adequate  idea  of  these  abominable  and 
blasphemous  forgeries,  they  must  be  read.  They  are  writ- 
ten in  an  assumed  style  of  conscientious  sanctity.  Their 
authors  pretend  to  be  watchmen  for  souls,  accountable  to 
God  for  their  fidelity ;  and  the  penalty  of  disobedience  is 
eternal  damnation.  Yet  the  impious  forgery  betrays  itself 
on  every  page.  Of  the  events  and  wants  of  their  own  age 
they  say  and  seem  to  know  nothing.  "With  the  hierarchi- 
cal claims  of  the  distant  future  centuries  they  are  perfectly 
familiar.  They  do  not  know  the  times  of  their  own  lives, 
or  pontificates,  or  deaths.  Some  date  their  letters  before 
they  were  popes  —  some  after  they  were  dead.  They 
quote  the  Latin  Vulgate  long  before  it  was  made.  They 
quote  writers  who  in  their  day  had  not  written,  laws 
that  had  not  been  made,  councils  that  had  not  been  held, 
and  use  words  and  a  style  of  language  not  then  in  exist- 
ence. Nor  were  they  ever  quoted  before  the  ninth  centu- 
ry amid  controversies  on  which  they  would  have  been 
decisive.  Such  are  the  documents  which  Nicholas  I.  pro- 
26 


302         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

mnlgated  in  the  name  of  God,  and  which  for  centuries 
ruled  the  world.  , 

Let  us,  in  conclusion,  consider  the  subsequent  state  and 
power  of  the  system.  The  church  of  Rome  has  indeed 
retreated  from  certain  positions,  from  which  she  has  been 
irresistibly  driven.  But  never  has  she  abandoned  the 
practice  of  the  system ;  and,  if  any  have  seemed  in  her 
name  to  condemn  it  in  principle,  this  condemnation  is 
but  a  new  specimen  of  pious  fraud.  She  cannot  condemn 
it.  It  is  wrought  into  her  whole  history.  Moreover  it  is 
a  case  of  necessity  to  that  church  to  lie.  Her  existence 
depends  on  it.  All  true  history  is  against  her.  Hence  we 
see  a  constant  tendency  to  rely  on  and  defend  forged 
documents  in  Baronius,  and  to  forge  lies  in  Bellarinine, 
as  in  his  infamous  narrative  of  the  death  of  Calvin  ;  also 
in  Audin's  Life  of  Calvin  the  same  course  is  pursued.  In 
the  same  spirit,  a  stupendous  enterprise  was  once  under- 
taken to  alter  and  expurgate  all  the  fathers  on  the  great 
scale. 

Hence  Platina's  History  of  the  Lives  of  the  Popes  has 
been  altered  and  corrupted  by  Papal  scribes  ;  so  that  only 
the  Venice  edition,  1479,  and  the  editions  published  in 
Holland,  1640,  1645,  1664,  are  worthy  of  confidence. 
Hence  we  may  account  for  the  omission  in  some  editions 
of  the  statements  concerning  Gregory  VII.  which  De 
Cormenin  quotes.  Hence,  too,  the  systematic  writing  of 
false  histories  for  the  use  of  Jesuit  schools  ;  and  the  falsi- 
fication of  Ranke's  History  of  the  Popes,  of  which  he 
complains,  and  the  circulation  and  use  of  such  falsified 
copies  in  Jesuit  schools  as  genuine.  Pagi  says,  "  Much  has 
been  said  of  the  popes  by  other  historians,  but  very  little 
by  their  own." 

Bower  adds  "  that  the  very  little  has  been  thought 
too  much  ;  whence  some  of  them,  Platina  in  particular, 


THE   FORGERIES   OF   THE   MIDDLE   AGES.  303 

have  been  made  in  all  their  editions  since  the  middle  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  to  speak  with  more  reserve,  and  to 
suppress  or  disguise  some  truths  they  had  formerly  told."  — 
Yol  i.  p.  15. 

When  to  the  influence  of  principles  so  corrupt  is  added 
the  bias  of  party  rage,  as  in  the  long  strifes  of  the  Guelphs 
and  Ghibelines,  or  in  the  great  schism,  one  can  easily  im- 
agine the  extent  to  which  lying  would  be  carried,  and  how 
much  the  difficulty  of  coming  at  the  truth  in  many  cases  is 
augmented.  As  these  parties  fought  with  the  sword,  so, 
says  Bower,  did  historians  with  more  rage  fight  with  their 
pens  ;  and  the  same  persons,  especially  the  popes  and  em- 
perors, are  by  opposing  writers  painted  in  very  different 
colors. 

Indeed  so  thoroughly  has  this  leprosy  of  pious  lying 
struck  through  the  Romish  church  that  all  who  are  approx- 
imating to  her  seem  naturally  to  fall  into  it.  Of  this  we  find 
a  striking  example  in  the  English  Puseyites,  who  are  re- 
viving the  doctrine  of  economy,  or  accommodation  — viz., 
lying  so  far  as  is  necessary  to  keep  their  hearers  from  re- 
volting from  their  sentiments  till  they  can  lead  them  along 
step  t)y  step  to  Rome.  Hence  Newman's  fierce  assaults 
on  Rome,  as  he  begun  his  Puseyite  movement,  were  all  a 
pious  fraud,  according  to  the  principles  of  the  economical 
system,  to  be  recanted  when  they  had  enabled  him  to 
corrupt  all  whom  he  could.  On  the  same  principles,  Je- 
suits in  secret  may  join  any  church  and  profess  any  thing 
in  order  to  work  in  the  dark  for  Rome. 

No  maxim  has  ever  been  so  constantly  carried  out  in  all 
ages  as  that  to  lie  for  the  Romish  church  is  not  only  no 
sin,  but  a  virtue  of  the  highest  kind.  On  this  principle 
pious  frauds  are  at  this  day  knowingly  carried  on  in  Mex- 
ico, as  described  by  Waddy  Thompson,  in  Rome,  and  in 
other  parts  of  the  Romish  world.  Such  a  system  under 


304        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  government  of  God  cannot  last  forever  ;  but  it  lias  a 
great  temporary  power. 

For  a  hierarchy  of  priests,  many  of  them  men  of  educa- 
tion and  great  intellectual  power  and  learning,  and  trained 
to  lie  on  system,  to  sustain  their  own  corporate  power  and 
wealth,  can  keep  the  masses  subjected  to  their  sway  in 
Romish  countries  in  utter  ignorance  of  the  facts  of  history, 
as  is  universally  the  case,  and  by  bold  assertions  can 
paralyze  to  a  certain  extent  the  power  of  history  in 
Protestant  countries. 

The  bold  inpudence  of  Pope  Zosimus  staggered  all  the 
assembled  bishops  of  Africa.  He  declared  certain  canons 
of  the  provincial  council  of  Sardica  to  be  canons  of  the 
council  of  Nice,  though  it  was  held  twenty  years  before 
that  of  Sardica. 

The  canons  of  Sardica  were  in  none  of  the  African 
copies  of  the  council  of  Nice.  The  African  bishops  pro- 
posed to  send  for  copies  to  Constantinople,  Alexandria, 
and  Antioch. 

"  It  matters  not,"  replied  the  conscious  legate,  "  whether 
or  not  those  canons  are  to  be  found  in  your  copies,  or  in- 
deed in  any  other.  You  must  know  that  the  canons  and 
ordinances  of  Nice,  which  have  been  handed  down  to  us 
BY  TRADITION  and  established  by  custom,  are  no  less  bind- 
ing than  those  that  have  been  conveyed  to  us  by  writing." 
A  fine  specimen  of  matchless  impudence !  But  so  has  Rome 
made  tradition  in  all  ages  her  grand  storehouse  of  lies. 

The  African  bishops  would  not  be  so  deluded.  They 
sent  for  the  copies  as  proposed,  exposed  the  fraud,  and 
held  up  the  pope  as  a  barefaced  impostor. 

Bower  well  calls  it  one  of  the  most  impudent  and  bare- 
faced impostures  recorded  in  history  ;  yet  Bishop  Kenrick 
has  not  a  word  of  censure  for  the  pope,  and  tries,  like  Ba- 
ronius  and  Bellarmine,  to  gloss  it  over  as  a  mistake. 


THE  FORGEKIES  OP  THE   MIDDLE  AGES.  305 

The  truth  is,  on  the  principles  of  that  church  there  was 
no  sin  in  the  lie,  but  merely  in  attempting  it  in  so  bungling 
a  way  as  to  be  found  out  and  exposed.  So  did  Purcell. 
of  Cincinnati,  twice  lie,  and  was  publicly  exposed. 

But  multitudes  of  other  impostures,  equally  gross  and 
impudent,  were  not  found  out,  and  made  the  Papal  power 
what  it  is  ;  and  the  same  impudent  system  of  lying  will 
still  be  pursued,  for  nothing  else  can  preserve  it  from  ruin. 
This  general  view  should  not,  however,  lead  to  despair  of 
a  final  victory  of  truth  nor  to  historical  scepticism.  Let 
a  man  look  at  one  of  our  counterfeit  detectors  containing 
scores  of  pages  of  counterfeits.  He  might  at  first  say,  It 
is  of  no  avail  to  try  to  distinguish  between  forged  and 
true  bills.  But  with  care  and  practice  it  can  be  done. 
So  is  it  in  history.  Many  forgeries  have  been  so  exposed 
that  none  dare  now  advocate  them  ;  and,  notwithstanding 
the  delusions  and  lies  of  the  hierarchy,  God  has  foretold, 
under  the  symbol  of  the  false  prophet,  his  doom.  He 
shall  be  taken  by  the  Son  of  man  and  cast  alive  into  the 
lake  of  fire  burning  with  brimstone. 

Clearly  then  all  Protestants  are  simpletons  who  do  not 
judge  Romanist  ecclesiastics  in  view  of  their  principles 
and  their  past  history.  He  that  is  simple  believeth  every 
word  of  such  men  ;  but  the  prudent  looketh  well  to  his 
going. 

In  conclusion,  I  would  say  that  the  good  of  our  nation 
requires  a  more  full  exposure  of  this  subject  than  we  can 
now  make,  with  the  facts  of  history  classified  and  ar- 
ranged. We  are  contending  with  a  matchless  system  of 
compacted  fraud,  and  need  to  have  a  perfect  understand- 
ing of  it  and  its  principles  and  deeds. 
26* 


CHAPTER  Y. 

THE  ROCK  PETER  AND  LEO  THE  GREAT. 

WE  have  seen  that  in  the  forged  decretals  the  rock 
Peter  was  made  the  foundation  of  the  immense  fabric  of 
fraud  and  forgery.  We  have  seen,  also,  by  what  course 
of  corruption  the  Romish  ecclesiastics  had  been  prepared 
for  such  a  forgery. 

But  the  success  of  that  great  forgery  implies  that  an- 
other work  had  been  previously  performed  ;  it  implies 
that  the  public  mind  had  been  prepared  to  receive  the 
forgery  by  a  preceding  course  of  claims  and  precedents 
on  the  part  of  the  popes  which  the  forgers  could  imbody 
and  establish  by  the  pretended  decretals  of  the  earlier 
popes. 

We  have  also  said  that  Leo  the  Great,  who  closes  the 
second  division  of  the  popes,  was  the  main  agent  in  de- 
veloping and  establishing  such  claims  and  pretensions. 
We  intimated,  moreover,  our  purpose  to  consider  more 
fully  his  agency  in  thus  laying  the  deepest  foundation  of 
the  great  Papal  fabric. 

We  will  make  him,  as  we  already  have  Nicholas  I.,  a 
sort  of  mountain  top  from  which  to  survey  the  widely- 
extended  field  of  the  Papal  campaigns. 

Nicholas,  who  developed  and  first  used  the  forged  de- 
cretals, lived,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  deep  midnight  of 
the  dark  ages.  The  whole  fabric  of  the  western  Roman 

(306) 


THE  ROCK  PETER  AND  LEO  THE  GREAT.      807 

empire  had  been  long  broken  up,  the  empire  of  Charle- 
magne had  arisen,  its  power  had  waned,  and  the  interests 
of  Europe  were  then  in  the  hands  of  his  feeble  successors 
and  of  the  Pope  of  Rome. 

Let  us  now  go  back  to  the  time  just  before  the  great 
breaking  up  of  the  Western  Empire  and  see  how  Leo  pre- 
pared the  pretended  bark  of  Peter  to  launch  into  the 
great  deluge  of  the  northern  nations  that  immersed  Eu- 
rope in  a  second  flood,  out  of  which  has  arisen  the  new 
world  of  modern  Europe. 


LEO  THE  GREAT. 

History  is  made  up  of  two  elements  —  facts  which 
transpire  in  this  world  and  the  relations  of  those  facts 
to  the  universal  system.  That  there  was  such  a  man  as 
Leo  the  Great ;  that  he  lived  in  the  fifth  century ;  that  he 
was  a  leading  spirit  of  his  age  ;  that  he  was  engaged  in 
divers  controversies  and  aimed  at  certain  definite  ends,  — 
these  and  similar  things  are  facts  easily  ascertainable 
and  capable  of  a  definite  and  precise  statement ;  nor  with 
regard  to  the  leading  facts  of  his  life  is  there  any  con- 
troversy. 

But  when  we  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  relations 
of  these  facts  to  the  universal  system  we  enter  at  once  a 
new  world.  Whilst  generations  of  men  die,  higher  and 
permanent  orders  of  spiritual  beings  meet  our  eyes.  Each 
generation  of  men-  has  its  principles,  ends,  and  aims ;  but 
no  common  intelligible  human  plan  runs  through  the  his- 
tory of  all  ages.  To  discover  such  a  plan  we  must  pass 
into  the  invisible  world  and  study  the  designs  of  Him  of 
whom,  and  through  whom,  and  to  whom  are  all  things, 
and  who  worketh  all  things  after  the  counsel  of  his 
own  will. 


308        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

To  give  the  relations  of  the  facts  of  history  from  this 
point  of  vision  is  by  no  means  so  easy  as  to  state  the 
facts.  It  leads  us  at  once  upon  controverted  ground. 
The  moment  we  raise  this  question  as  it  regards  Leo  we 
meet  the  great  controversy  of  the  age.  To  the  partisans 
of  Rome  he  is  Leo  the  Great  —  to  their  opponents  he  is 
but  a  prominent  founder  of  a  terrific  and  malignant  anti- 
Christian  system  which  was  matured  and  perfectly  devel- 
oped by  Nicholas  L,  Gregory  VII.,  and  Innocent  III. 

God  only  can  write  a  perfect  history  of  the  world  from 
this  point  of  vision,  and  at  the  day  of  the  revelation  of  his 
just  judgment  he  will  do  it.  Meantime  there  is  to  be  even 
on  earth,  under  the  guidance  of  his  Spirit,  an  historical 
day  of  judgment.  On  no  subject  has  more  illusion  and 
fraud  been  practised,  especially  since  the  days  of  Christ, 
than  on  the  history  of  this  world.  But  the  day  cometh 
that  shall  burn  as  an  oven.  God  is  yet  to  reign  ;  and  he 
will  reign  by  the  truth,  and  not  by  delusion  and  fraud. 
No  one,  therefore,  is  more  concerned  in  promulgating  and 
establishing  correct  views  of  the  history  of  this  world  than 
he.  In  all  our  inquiries,  then,  let  us  entreat  him  to  dissi- 
pate all  delusions,  to  open  our  eyes,  to  purify  our  hearts, 
and  to  touch  our  lips  as  with  a  coal  from  his  own  altar. 

In  the  historical  sketch  which  we  have  undertaken  to 
present  we  have  chosen  an  individual  to  stand  as  the  cen- 
tral figure  of  the  picture  ;  and  yet  our  mainf  design  is, 
through  him,  to  evolve  the  principles  and  spirit  of  the 
Romish  corporation  in  his  age. 

Leo  was  chosen  Bishop  of  Rome  A.  D.  440,  and  died 
A.  D.  461,  after  an  eventful  reign  of  twenty-one  years. 
From  423  to  455  Valentinian  III.  was  Emperor  of  the 
West.  Maximus,  Avitus,  and  Majorianus  ruled  during  the 
remaining  six  years  of  his  life.  From  408  to  450  Theo- 
dosius  II.  was  Emperor  of  the  East ;  Marcian  from  450  to 


THE  ROCK  PETER  AND  LEO  THE  GREAT.  309 

457  ;  Leo,  also  called  the  Great,  from  457  to  474.  Such 
were  his  contemporary  civil  rulers. 

As  to  his  parentage  and  early  education  little  is  known. 
He  was  a  Roman  by  birth.  His  father's  name  was  Quinc- 
tianus.  His  first  appearance  in  history  is  just  before  his 
choice  as  Bishop  of  Rome.  He  was  sent  by  Pope  Sixtus 
III.  to  effect  a  reconciliation  between  Aetius  and  Albinus 
in  Gaul,  of  which  we  shall  soon  speak.  During  his  ab- 
sence Sixtus  died,  and  Leo  was  chosen  in  his  place. 

The  main  characteristic  of  the  age  of  Leo  was  the  ap- 
proaching destruction  of  those  institutions  of  Roman  civil 
society  which  paganism  had  formed.  Concerning  these 
Guizot  remarks,  "  The  civil  society  of  the  Roman  world, 
to  all  outward  appearances,  seemed  Christian  equally 
with  the  religious  society.  The  great  majority  of  the  Eu- 
ropean nations  and  kings  had  embraced  Christianity  ;  but 
at  the  bottom  the  civil  society  was  pagan.  Its  institutions, 
its  laws,  its  manners  were  all  essentially  pagan.  It  was 
entirely  a  society  formed  by  paganism,  not  at  all  a  soci- 
ety formed  by  Christianity.  Christian  civil  society  did 
not  develop  itself  till  a  later  period,  till  after  the  invasion 
of  the  barbarians.  It  belongs  in  point  of  time  to  modern 
history.  In  the  fifth  century,  whatever  outward  appear- 
ances may  say  to  the  contrary,  there  existed  between  civil 
society  and  religious  society  incoherence,  contradiction, 
contest ;  for  they  were  essentially  different  both  in  their 
origin  and  in  their  nature." 

"  I  would  pray  you  never  to  lose  sight  of  this  diversity  ; 
it  is  a  diversity  which  alone  enables  us  to  comprehend  the 
real  condition  of  the  Roman  world  at  this  period." 

This  political  society  was  enervated,  and  rapidly  ap- 
proaching dissolution  and  death  :  slavery  and  the  deep 
degradation  of  the  masses  of  the  people  were  the  main 


310        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

causes  of  this  state  of  things.  The  barbarians  were  God's 
instruments  for  breaking  in  pieces  that  old  fabric  which 
was  tottering  to  its  fall  and  ready  soon  to  vanish  away. 

Hence  the  names  of  Alaric,  Attila,  and  Genseric  begin 
to  figure  on  the  page  of  history  ;  and  the  Vandals,  Franks, 
Goths,  Visigoths,  and  Burgundians,  under  the  guidance 
of  such  leaders,  issue  from  the  North  to  execute  the  pur- 
poses of  God. 

A  period  of  political  dissolution  and  chaos  is  to  ensue, 
during  which  a  new  religious  society  is  to  exercise  a 
centralizing  and  organizing  power.  Of  this  society  Leo 
claimed  to  be  the  divinely  ordained  head  ;  and  his  whole 
energies  were  put  forth  to  develop  and  establish  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Papal  monarchy.  Never  was  there  a  point 
in  which  a  great  mind,  swayed  by  ambition,  and  not  con- 
trolled by  a  regard  to  truth,  had  a  finer  opportunity  to 
exercise  a  creative  and  organizing  power. 

In  various  ways  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had  already  ob- 
tained great  influence.  But  he  was  by  no  means  monarch 
of  the  Christian  world.  Indeed  never  had  there  been  a 
time  when  he  had  rivals  so  powerful  as  were  now  the  pa- 
triarchs of  Alexandria,  Antioch,  Jerusalem,  and  especially 
of  Constantinople. 

The  power  of  these  bishops  originated  from  two  sources 
—  one  political,  the  other  spiritual.  The  former  was 
in  fact  the  only  source  of  the  extraordinary  and  despotic 
powers  they  were  intent  on  establishing.  Of  this  we 
have  a  full  illustration  in  the  history  of  the  see  of  Con- 
stantinople. The  Bishop  of  Byzantium  was  at  first  but  a 
suffragan  to  the  Bishop  of  Heraclea,  exarch  of  the  dio- 
cese of  Thrace. 

But  Constantine  made  Byzantium  a  new  Rome  ;  and  lo, 
the  Bishop  of  Byzantium  soon  becomes  the  leading  patri- 
arch in  all  the  East ;  for  it  was  not  fit  that  the  emperor's 


THE  BOCK  PETEB  AND  LEO  THE  GREAT.  311 

bishop  should  be  inferior  in  rank  or  power  to  any  of  the 
bishops  of  the  East.  His  central  political  position,  too, 
gave  him  the  same  means  of  augmenting  his  power  which 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  enjoyed  at  the  West ;  and  diligently 
and  skilfully  did  he  use  them,  and  rapidly  did  he  gain  on 
the  Bishops  of  Home  in  the  race. 

And  if  the  political  basis  of  the  bishop's  power  were  to 
continue  the  main  one,  it  was  plain  that  if  Old  Rome  fell, 
and  New  Rome  stood,  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople 
might  finally  win  in  the  race. 

It  was  certainly  a  critical  period.  Some  master  spirit 
was  needed  fully  to  develop  and  establish  the  doctrine 
that  the  |»ower  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had  a  higher  ori- 
gin than  that  of  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  ;  so  that, 
even  if  Old  Rome  fell,  his  spiritual  kingdom  might  not 
only  remain  unshaken,  but  take  her  place  and  rise  upon 
her  ruins. 

Such  a  master  spirit  was  needed.  In  Leo  he  was  found. 
A  Roman  by  birth,  of  powerful  intellect,  indomitable  will, 
dauntless  courage,  vivid  imagination,  great  power  of  emo- 
tion, a  finished  education,  extensive  learning,  a  majestic 
person,  and  fervid  eloquence,  he  was  beyond  all  doubt 
immeasurably  superior,  in  most  of  those  elements  which 
give  power  over  mind,  to  all  the  men  of  his  age.  He  is 
worthy  to  be  placed  side  by  side  with  Nicholas  I.,  Greg- 
ory VII.,  and  Innocent  III. 

But,  considering  the  claims  of  the  see  of  Rome  to  be  the 
great  preserver  of  the  faith  on  earth,  it  is  not  a  little  re- 
markable that  Leo  is  the  first  theological  writer  of  any 
ability  which  the  see  of  Rome  produced,  the  first  who 
has  left  any  important  work  for  the  benefit  of  posterity, 
if  we  omit  the  apostle  Peter  and  the  evangelical  and 
primitive  Clement. 

Before  Leo,  the  leading  champions  of  the  faith  did  not 


312        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

come  from  the  see  of  Rome.  So  far  from  it  was  the  fact, 
that  the  faith  would  have  been  betrayed  had  it  been  left 
solely  to  the  Bishop  of  Rome.  Athanasius,  Bishop  of  Al- 
exandria, was  the  great  pillar  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Trin- 
ity ;  whilst  Pope  Liberius  signed  an  Arian  creed.  Augus- 
tine, Bishop  of  Hippo,  was  the  great  champion  of  the 
doctrine  of  human  depravity  and  the  sovereign  grace  of 
God  ;  whilst  Pope  Zosimus  became  the  champion  of  Pe- 
lagianism  till  compelled  by  the  power  and  perseverance 
of  Augustine  to  recant.  Popes  Julius  and  Felix,  long  be- 
fore Eutyches,  had  promulgated  the  Eutychian  doctrine, 
which  the  whole  energy  of  Leo  and  after  ages  labored  in 
vain  utterly  to  overthrow  and  eradicate.  . 

The  great  writers  of  the  East  and  the  West,  Augustine 
and  Basil,  Athanasius  and  Ambrose,  the  Gregories  and 
Chrysostom,  had  adorned  their  respective  sees  ;  whilst 
Rome  remained  in  a  state  of  comparative  intellectual  and 
theological  barrenness  till  Leo  arose. 

But  the  moment  he  appeared  on  the  stage  the  centre  of 
both  ecclesiastical  and  intellectual  power  was  no  doubt  at 
Rome.  With  a  strong  hand  and  a  determined  will  he 
grasped  all  the  great  questions  of  the  age,  and  made  an 
impress  on  the  world  that  is  felt  to  this  day.  He  gave  a 
decided  turn  to  theology  and  to  the  current  of  events  in 
favor  of  the  see  of  Rome  ;  nor,  judging  by  their  standards, 
have  the  partisans  of  that  see  erred  in  calling  him  LEO 
THE  GREAT. 

The  acts  of  his  life  may  be  arranged  in  five  classes  :  — 

1.  Those  which  related  to  the  existing  interests  of  the 
Roman  empire  as  endangered  by  the  barbarians. 

2.  Those  which  relate  to  the  powers  of  the  see  of  Rome. 

3.  Those  which  relate  to  the  vindication  and  establish- 
ment of  the  orthodox  system  of  faith. 

4.  Those  which  relate  to  the  use  of  force  in  the  sup- 
pression of  heresy. 


THE   ROCK   PETER   AND   LEO   THE   GREAT.  313 

5.  Those  which  relate  to  the  discipline  of  the  church. 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  that  all  his  acts  except  those 
of  the  first  class  related  to  principles  destined  to  exert  a 
vast  influence  on  all  future  generations.  Whatever  may 
be  thought  of  the  character  of  the  Romish  church,  no  one 
can  deny  that  it  was  for  ages  the  centre  of  intellectual  and 
ecclesiastical  power  for  Christendom.  No  point  of  vision 
gives  so  comprehensive  an  insight  into  the  religious  and 
political  condition  of  the  Christian  world  for  ages.  An 
emotion  of  sublimity,  therefore,  fills  the  mind  as  we  stand 
at  the  fountain  head  of  this  great  river  of  destiny  and 
watch  the  elements  that  are  from  time  to  time  mingled 
with  it  by  the  presiding  spirit  at  Rome. 

1.  "We  have  excepted  Leo's  acts  of  the  first  class  from 
the  list  of  such  as  involve  principles  destined  to  affect 
future  ages.  They  were  indeed  in  his  own  day  more 
thought  of  ;  they  occupy  a  more  prominent  place  in  the 
histories  of  the  age  ;  but  they  affected  simply  the  question 
of  the  earlier  or  later  downfall  of  Rome.  That  mistress 
of  the  world  was  thoroughly  corrupt.  Her  measure  of 
iniquity  was  nearly  full.  All  that  Leo  could  do  for  her  was 
for  a  little  time  to  delay  her  fall.  When,  A.  D.  440,  under 
the  weak  rule  of  Yalentinian,  the  safety  of  Rome  was  en- 
dangered by  the  alienation  of  Aetius,  the  greatest  Roman 
general  of  the  age,  and  Albinus,  a  Gallic  lord  of  great 
power,  and  this  at  the  very  time  when  the  empire  was 
overrun  by  the  Goths,  Burgundians,  Franks,  and  Huns, 
Leo  was  chosen,  as  qualified  above  all  others  by  eloquence, 
sagacity,  and  tact,  to  reconcile  them.  To  effect  this,  he  was 
sent  on  an  embassy  to  Gaul.  He  fulfilled  his  mission  with 
such  success  that  he  stood  conspicuous  in  the  eyes  of  his 
own  generation  as  a  great  peace.maker  and  the  savior  of 
the  empire  from  impending  ruin. 

Again  :  A.  D.  452,  when  Attila  and  his  Huns,  having  been 
27 


314         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

driven  by  Aetius  out  of  Gaul,  had  invaded  Italy,  and,  hav- 
ing captured  Aquileia,  Pavia,  and  even  Milan,  the  imperial 
residence,  were  preparing  to  lay  siege  to  Rome,  Leo  was 
sent  at  the  head  of  an  embassy  to  him,  that  he  might  exert 
the  power  of  his  effective  eloquence  and  address  upon  the 
mind  of  the  terrible  leader  of  the  barbarians.  Without 
the  aid  of  a  vivid  imagination,  it  is  easy  to  invest  this 
transaction  with  a  peculiar  and  impressive  dramatic  in- 
terest. All  hearts  were  dismayed  ;  even  Aetius  trembled 
before  the  barbarian  hosts  ;  when  lo,  the  gates  of  Rome 
open,  and  her  bishop,  in  sacerdotal  robes  and  with  majes- 
tic aspect,  goes  forth  to  try  the  force  of  intellectual  and 
spiritual  arms  against  the  victorious  leader  of  barbarian 
hosts.  To  the  natural  and  inherent  interest  of  the  scene 
religious  fiction  has  sought  to  superadd  a  new  intensity 
by  introducing  a  miraculous  appearance  of  Peter  and 
Paul  to  second  the  eloquence  of  Leo.  It  is  enough,  how- 
ever, for  us  to  know  that  the  embassy  was  successful. 
Attila  retired,  and  Rome  for  a  time  was  saved.  It  is 
added  by  others  that  a  pestilence  in  the  camp  of  Attila, 
the  invasion  of  his  own  country  by  Marcian,  the  prospect 
of  speedy  and  powerful  reinforcements  for  the  Romans, 
and  the  stipulation  of  an  annual  tribute  of  two  thousand 
pounds  of  gold  were  the  real  influences  that  gave  power 
to  the  eloquence  of  Leo.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  glory  that 
he  has  derived  from  the  success  of  this  mission  has  been 
great.  Yet,  after  all,  it  accomplished  little  for  Rome,  and 
still  less  for  the  world.  It  affected,  as  we  have  safd,  no 
great  principle,  and  it  caused  but  a  brief  delay  of  the 
downfall  of  Rome.  Even  the  same  Leo  at  a  later  date  in 
vain  exerted  his  eloquence  to  deter  Genseric  from  the  sack 
of  Rome.  Summoned  by  Eudoxia,  the  widow  of  Valentin- 
ian,  to  avenge  her  on  Maximus,  who  had  slain  her  husband, 
assumed  his  throne,  and  compelled  her  to  marry  him,  he 


THE   ROCK  PETER   AND   LEO   THE   GREAT.  315 

plundered  Rome,  and  carried  away,  not  only  vast  treasures, 
but  also  many  Romans  as  slaves.  At  the  request  of  Leo, 
he  only  consented  to  save  the  city  from  the  flames. 

2.  Let  us  now  come  to  those  acts  of  Leo  that  related  to 
principles  destined  to  increase  in  power  till  they  should 
ingulf  all  other  power  in  their  tremendous  vortex.  We 
have  already  remarked  that  the  power  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  was  originally  based  upon  the  political  supremacy 
of  Rome.  Even  Newman,  in  an  argument  designed  to 
conduct  his  disciples  into  the  bosom  of  Rome,  is  obliged 
to  admit  that  the  doctrine  of  the  "  regalia  Petri"  was  unde- 
veloped in  the  early  ages.  He  intimates,  indeed,  that  it 
slumbered  in  the  record,  ready  to  be  developed  when  needed  ; 
but  it  is  a  very  suspicious  fact  that  the  new  basis  of  the 
claims  of  the  pretended  succession  of  Peter  was  not  dis- 
covered till  the  political  basis  seemed  to  be  in  danger  of 
being  subverted  by  the  superior  political  power  of  the 
Bishop  of  Constantinople.  Then  the  hidden  sense  of 
"  Thou  art  Peter  "  began  to  open  rapidly  on  the  mind  of 
Leo  ;  and  with  imperious  energy  he  thus  sets  it  forth  in  his 
letter  to  the  Bishops  of  Gaul:  "It  was  the  will  of  our 
Lord  that  all  nations  should  hear  the  truth  through  the 
apostolic  trumpet.  Yet  it  was  also  his  pleasure  that  the 
blessed  Peter  should  preside  over  the  other  apostles  in  the 
discharge  of  this  duty  ;  so  that  all  divine  gifts  should  flow 
to  the  body  from  him  as  the  head,  so  that  none  could 
partake  of  the  blessings  of  the  kingdom  of  God  who 
should-«dare  to  depart  from  the  rock  Peter.  This  office 
of  Peter  Christ  proclaimed  when  he  said,  '  Thou  art  Peter' 
<fcc.  Thus  the  structure  of  the  eternal  temple,  by  the 
wonderful  grace  of  God,  was  made  to  rest  on  the  rock 
Peter."  In  all  this  there  is  NOW  no  originality  ;  but  in  the 
days  of  Leo  there  was  need  of  his  master  mind  to  give 
currency  to  this  doctrine.  With  reference  to  him  Gieseler 


316         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

says,  "  By  exalting  the  authority  of  the  apostle  Peter,  and 
by  tracing  all  his  rights  to  this  source,  as  well  as  by  his 
personal  qualities  and  good  fortune,  he  did  more  than  any 
of  his  predecessors  in  extending  and  confirming  the  power 
of  the  Romish  see." 

Gieseler  also,  in  section  ninety-two,  says  that  "  this  view 
•was  first  fully  developed  by  Leo."  Bower,  however, 
has  shown,  from  a  letter  of  Innocent  I.  (A.  D.  401-417)  to 
Alexander,  Bishop  of  Antioch,  that  the  merit  or  de- 
merit of  first  developing  this  idea  belongs  to  Innocent. 
In  that  letter  he  derives  the  prerogatives,  privileges,  and 
jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  see  from  St.  Peter.  In  view 
of  this  Bower  remarks,  "  Innocent  may  be  justly  said  to 
have  pointed  out  the  ground  on  which  the  unwieldy  fabric 
of  the  Papal  power  was  afterwards  built."  Still  it  is 
true,  as  Gieseler  asserts,  that  Leo  first  FULLY  developed 
this  view.  THUS,  THEN,  INNOCENT  I.  ORIGINATED  IT  AND 

ACCUSTOMED  THE  EARS  OF  MEN  TO  HEAR  IT.  LEO  FULLY 
DEVELOPED  AND  TO  HIS  UTMOST  POWER  ENFORCED  IT. 

NICHOLAS  I.,  BY  THE  GREAT  FORGERY,  ADDED  TO  ITS  POWER. 
GREGORY  VII.  ERECTED  THE  FABRIC,  AND  INNOCENT  III. 

REIGNED   IN  THE   MERIDIAN   SPLENDOR,   OF   PAPAL  GLORY. 

Nor  was  Leo  at  all  deficient  in  that  unprincipled  bold- 
ness and  energy  which  were  essential  in  order  to  enforce 
such  claims  of  authority.  This  was  especially  seen  in  his 
encounter  with  that  distinguished  Romish  saint,  Hilary, 
Bishop  of  Aries  and  Exarch  of  the  seven  provinces  of 
Narbonne.  A  council  of  bishops  in  which  Hilary  pre- 
sided had  deposed  Celidonius,  Bishop  of  Besan£on.  He 
appealed  to  Leo.  Hilary  denied  the  right  of  Leo  to  re- 
ceive the  appeal  and  review  their  proceedings  ;  Leo  main- 
tained it.  The  fifth  canon  of  the  council  of  Nice  con- 
demned the  usurpation  of  Leo.  Hilary  went  to  Rome  to 
protest  against  it.  Leo  arrested  and  confined  him  there, 


THE  ROCK  PETER  AND   LEO   THE  GREAT.  317 

and  appointed  a  day  for  reviewing  the  case.  Hilary  es- 
caped from  confinement  and  fled  to  Aries.  Leo,  enraged 
at  his  contumacy,  reexamined  the  case,  and,  against  noto- 
rious facts,  declared  Celidonius  innocent,  and  restored 
him  to  his  office  as  bishop.  Nor  did  he  stop  here  :  he 
excommunicated  Hilary,  deprived  him  of  all  jurisdiction, 
suspended  his  episcopal  functions,  and  abolished  the 
dignity  of  exarch,  formerly  conferred  on  the  see  of  Aries. 
Even  this  did  not  suffice  :  he  wrote  to  the  Gallic  bishops 
a  slanderous  letter  designed  to  blast  the  character  and 
destroy  the  influence  of  Hilary.  It  was  in  this  letter  that 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  supremacy  of  Peter  and  his 
successors  was  first  fully  developed.  His  next  step  was  to 
enlist  the  imperial  power  on  his  side.  The  weak  Valen- 
tinian  was  by  him  deluded,  misinformed,  and  thus  led  to 
confirm  by  an  imperial  edict  all  of  his  arrogant  claims, 
and  to  state,  in  notorious  contravention  of  facts,  that  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  had  always  exercised  the  powers  claimed 
by  Leo.  This  edict  occurs  in  Leo's  works,  and  no  doubt 
came  from  his  pen.  There  is  nothing  in  the  forged  de- 
cretals of  a  later  age  more  thoroughly  unprincipled  than 
this  conduct  of  Leo.  Hilary  never  yielded  to  him,  but 
died  under  his  ban  ;  yet  he  continued  to  exercise  all  the 
functions  of  his  office  as  before,  respected  by  all  who 
knew  him  as  one  of  the  most  eminent  Christians  of  the 
age.  The  Romish  church,  too,  has  refuted  the  slanders 
of  Leo  by  canonizing  him  ;  and  even  Leo,  after  the  death 
of  Hilary,  was  inconsistent  enough  to  call  him  "  Hilary 
of  holy  memory."  Such  was  Leo  the  great ;  such  was 
the  manner  in  which  he  toiled  to  lay  the  broad  founda- 
tions of  the  Papal  power.  Since  the  Romish  church  has 
canonized  Hilary,  the  Romanists  are  greatly  perplexed  to 
know  what  to  say  of  the  conduct  of  Leo.  One  author  of 
the  Life  of  Hilary  omits  his  excommunication.  Certainly, 
27* 


318         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

if  Hilary  was  a  saint,  Leo  was  not ;  yet  both  have  been 
canonized.  Hilary,  perhaps,  deserved  the  honor.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  conduct  of  Leo  was  too  profitable  to 
Rome  to  pass  without  reward.  It  aided  to  lay  the 
broad  basis  of  all  her  powers.  Therefore  she  has  canon- 
ized him  also.  So,  then,  both  Leo,  who  excommunicated 
Hilary,  and  Hilary,  who  died  under  his  anathema,  were 
both  eminent  saints.  Consistent  Rome ! 

The  same  traits  of  character  were  displayed  by  Leo  in 
his  obstinate  resistance  of  the  twenty-eighth  canon  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon.  In  this,  as  we  have  already  stated, 
was  distinctly  advanced  the  doctrine,  that  the  power  of 
the  Bishop  of  Rome  as  well  as  of  Constantinople  was 
solely  of  political  origin.  Of  the  dangerous  tendency  of 
this  doctrine  Leo  was  too  well  aware,  and  resisted  it  with 
implacable  hostility  ;  yet  it  was  impossible  with  any 
show  of  historical  truth  to  resist  the  canon.  Leo  there- 
fore supplied  his  lack  of  argument  by  imperious  obstinacy 
and  falsehood.  But  the  canon  of  the  council  remains  to 
this  day,  an  unanswerable  proof  of  the  real  origin  of  that 
great  central  despotism  which  at  last  claimed  by  divine 
right  the  supremacy  of  the  whole  Christian  world.  That 
large  ecumenical  council  of  six  hundred  bishops  expressly 
say,  "  Since  the  fathers,  properly  conceded  eminent  pre- 
rogatives to  the  episcopal  throne  of  old  Rome,  because  of 
the  political  supremacy  of  that  city,  (<5t«  TO  paodeieiv  mv  n6hy 
^<-/'V',)  the  divinely  beloved  fathers  of  the  council  of 
Constantinople,  acting  on  the  same  principle,  assigned 
equal  prerogatives  to  the  episcopal  throne  of  New  Rome ; 
thinking  it  suitable  that  a  city  honored  by  imperial  au- 
thority and  a  senate,  and  enjoying  equal  political  preroga- 
tives with  Old-Rome,  should  possess  an  equal  preeminence 
with  her  in  ecclesiastical  authority."  The  only  differ- 
ence admitted  by  the  council  between  the  two  sees  was 


THE  ROCK  PETER  AND  LEO   THE  GREAT.  319 

not  one  of  authority,  but  of  honorary  precedence,  which 
was  naturally  assigned  to  the  see  of  the  oldest  of  the  two 
cities.  This,  it  is  plain,  is  a  doctrine  totally  subversive 
of  the  theory  of  Leo,  that  the  supremacy  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome  is  derived  from  the  divine  appointment  of  Peter  to 
be  the  head  of  the  church  universal.  But  this  is  not  all. 
The  see  of  Constantinople  was,  by  the  council  of  Chal- 
cedon,  invested  with  the  right  of  receiving  appeals  from 
all  other  ecclesiastical  tribunals  whatever.  This  power, 
at  least  in  words,  was  granted  without  any  limitation. 
And  even  if,  with  Bower,  we  think  that  it  had  in  reality 
reference  to  the  Eastern  church  alone,  yet  it  is  plain  be- 
yond a  doubt  that  the  council  decided  that  the  Bishop  of 
Constantinople  was  entirely  independent  of  the  see  of 
Rome.  Still  further  :  the  universality  of  their  language 
gave  to  the  Bishop  of  Constantinople  better  ground  to  as- 
sume the  title  of  universal  bishop,  and  head  of  all  the 
churches,  and  primate  of  the  Christian  world  than  the 
Bishop  of  Rome  ever  had.  And  when  the  Western  Empire 
fell  he  did  in  fact  put  forth  such  claims,  greatly  to  the  ter- 
ror of  Gregory  the  Great,  who  felt  that  his  own  throne  was 
tottering  to  its  fall.  When,  now,  we  consider  the  notorious 
fact  that  all  churches  were  at  first  independent  and  equal, 
we  shall  see  how  immense  was  the  chasm  to  be  bridged  over 
before  the  church  of  Rome  could  arrive  at  universal  mon- 
archy by  divine  right  over  all  the  churches  of  the  earth. 
We  also  see  that  intrepid  forgery  and  lying  were  the  only 
materials  out  of  which  the  necessary  bridge  could  be  con- 
structed. The  greatness,  then,  which  is  involved  in  found- 
ing the  Romish  power  is  of  necessity  based  upon  such  ele- 
ments ;  and  for  such  greatness  Leo,  Nicholas  L,  Gregory 
VII.,  and  Innocent  III.  were  eminently  distinguished. 

Leo  could  not  resist  the  twenty-eighth  canon  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon  except  by  forgery  ;  and  accordingly 


320         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

he  forged,  or  caused  to  be  forged,  an  addition  to  the  canons 
of  the  council  of  Nice.  The  legates  of  Leo  produced  in 
the  council  of  Chalcedon  a  Latin  translation  of  the  sixth 
canon,  in  which  the  see  of  Rome  was  said  always  to  have 
enjoyed  the  primacy.  But  the  whole  council  regarded 
the  addition  as  a  forged  interpolation  ;  and  plainly  they 
were  right.  It  is  inconsistent  with  the  context,  and  has 
been  since  omitted  in  the  best  Latin  translations  of  the 
canons.  That  Leo  could  retain  any  character  or  influence 
after  such  an  infamous  fraud,  throws  a  striking  light  on 
the  morality  of  the  age.  The  leprosy  of  religious  lying 
had  so  corrupted  the  nominally  Christian  community  that 
to  be  exposed  in  it  seemed  to  injure  no  man's  character, 
standing,  or  influence.  Well  has  inspiration  given  as  one 
tra'it  of  the  great  apostasy,  "  Speaking  lies  in  hypocrisy." 
Leo,  after  the  council  of  Chalcedon,  did  not  hesitate  to 
profess  a  sacred  regard  to  the  council  of  Nice,  and  to 
oppose  the  obnoxious  Chalcedonian  decree  by  an  appeal  to 
his  own  forged  addition  to  the  decrees  of  Nice.  And  yet 
such  was  his  personal  influence  and  power  that  he  was 
feared  alike  by  the  Eastern  and  Western  emperors  and 
by  all  the  civilians  and  ecclesiastics  of  the  age. 

In  thus  professing  a  supreme  regard  to  the  canons  of 
Nice  he  was  guilty  of  a  gross  inconsistency  ;  for  the  fifth 
of  these  canons  ordered  all  appeals  to  be  finally  decided 
by  the  bishops  of  each  province.  Yet  he  excommunicated 
Hilary  for  adhering  to  this  very  canon  and  claiming  final 
authority  in  the  case  of  Celidonius  against  the  imperious 
claims  of  the  usurping  Bishop  of  Rome.  Again  we  say, 
What  can  be  conceived  of  more  unprincipled  than  the 
conduct  of  Leo  ?  Yet  for  this  very  conduct  Rome  has 
ever  regarded  him  as  Leo  the  Great.  And  well  may  she, 
so  long  as  she  retains  her  arrogant  claims ;  for  they  aro 
founded  on  nothing:  else. 


THE   ROCK   PETER   AND   LEO   THE   GREAT.  321 

In  the  transactions  which  have  passed  under  review  we 
see  the  germs  of  some  of  the  greatest  developments  of 
subsequent  ages.  In  Leo  I.  we  see  the  model  of  Nich- 
olas I.,  Hildebrand,  and  Innocent  III.  ;  in  his  contest 
with  Hilary,  a  preparation  for  the  great  controversy  as  to 
the  Gallic  liberties  which  nearly  lost  France  to  the  Rom- 
ish church  ;  in  his  warfare  with  the  see  of  Constantinople, 
the  forerunner  of  the  great  Greek  schism.  Any  one  could 
easily  have  foreseen  that  Constantinople,  the  great  rival 
of  Old  Rome,  would  sooner  consent  to  lie  under  her 
anathema  than  tamely  submit  to  her  power. 

3.  From  acts  so  discreditable  to  Leo  we  gladly  turn  to 
consider  his  influence  on  the  doctrines  of  the  church  ;  for 
here  we  can  find,  results  of  his  intellectual  powers  in 
which  orthodox  divines,  both  Romish  and  Protestant, 
concur  to  this  day.  We  refer  to  his  discussion  of  the 
great  doctrine  of  THE  UNION  OP  THE  TWO  NATURES  OP 
CHRIST  IN  ONE  PERSON.  After  what  has  been  said  of  his 
unprincipled  policy  in  extending  the  power  of  the  see  of 
Rome,  it  is  perhaps  little  to  the  credit  of  the  orthodox 
doctrine  of  the  person  of  Christ  that  he  should  be  found 
to  be  its  great  champion,  and  to  have  done  more  than  any 
one  person  of  antiquity  in  giving  it  the  form  in  which  it 
is  now  held.  But  truth  does  not  cease  to  be  truth  even 
if  advocated  by  an  unworthy  defender. 

The  chief  work  of  Leo  upon  this  momentous  theme  is 
his  letter  to  Flavianus,  Bishop  of  Constantinople.  The 
circumstances  that  called  it  forth  were  these  :  Eutyches, 
reacting  from  the  reputed  error  of  Nestorius,  had  main- 
tained that  the  divine  and  human  natures  after  their 
union  in  Christ  became  OXE  NATURE.  For  this  he  was 
condemned  and  deposed  by  a  provincial  council  at  Con- 
stantinople under  Flavianus,  bishop  of  that  see.  Eutyches 
appealed  from  the  decision  to  an  ecumenical  council. 


322         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

He  addressed  his  appeal  in  particular  to  the  Bishops  of 
Rome,  Alexandria,  Jerusalem,  and  Thessalonica.  It  was 
in  answer  to  this  appeal  and  in  prospect  of  this  council  that 
Leo  wrote  his  celebrated  letter  to  Flavianus  in  opposition 
to  Eutyches,  in  which  he  developed  the  true  doctrine. 
This  letter  was  afterwards  received  as  canonical  by  the 
council  of  Chalcedon  and  by  all  the  orthodox  bishops. 
It  was,  says  Bower,  in  the  "Western  churches  read  during 
the  advent  with  the  Gospels.  The  council  of  Rome 
anathematized  all  who  should  reject  even  a  word  of  it. 
Gregory  the  Great  made  it  the  standard  of  orthodoxy  on 
that  point.  The  council  of  Apamea  styled  it  "  the  true 
column  of  the  orthodox  faith  ; "  and  some  even  caused  it 
to  be  read  to  them  at  the  point  of  death,  in  proof  that 
they  died  in  the  true  faith  of  the  church.  Such  have  been 
the  fame  and  the  power  of  this  letter  ;  yet  it  was  not  at 
first  received  without  opposition  so  violent  as  to  require 
all  the  influence  and  energy  of  Leo  to  defend  it. 

4.  Our  attention  is  next  naturally  called  to  the  influence 
exerted  by  Leo  on  the  great  question  of  the  use  of  force 
and  the  infliction  of  civil  pains  and  penalties  in  the  sup- 
pression of  error.  If  any  who  were  called  at  the  origin 
of  this  question  to  investigate  it,  and  to  give  form  to  the 
doctrine  of  the  church  on  the  subject,  could  have  had  a 
prophetic  vision  of  such  scenes  as  the  massacre  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  celebrated  by  the  Te  Deums  at  Rome,  or  of 
the  dungeons,  stakes,  and  autos  dafe  of  the  Inquisition,  — 
had  they  at  all  weighed  the  import  of  that  fearful  symbol, 
a  harlot  drunk  with  blood,  —  with  what  fearful  solicitude 
would  they  have  entered  upon  the  investigation !  But  it 
was  destined  that  early  generations  should  sow  the  seeds 
of  the  system  of  religious  persecution,  and  future  ages 
reap  the  harvest  of  blood.  To  Leo  the  bad  preeminence 
does  not  belong  of  having  originated  the  system  of  per- 


THE   ROCK   PETER  AND   LEO   THE   GREAT.  323 

sccution  for  opinion's  sake.  But  it  must  be  said  of  him 
that  he  strengthened  it  when  it  was  relatively  weak  and 
sanctioned  it  by  his  great  influence,  when,  if  he  had  re- 
sisted it  with  all  his  power,  he  might  have  destroyed  it 
forever. 

The  idea  of  inflicting  civil  pains  and  penalties  for  opin- 
ions sprang  naturally  out  of  the  alliance  between  church 
and  state.  In  the  early  ages  of  Christianity  it  was  ut- 
terly repudiated.  One  form  of  subsequent  intolerance 
was  so  plausible  that  it  caused  little  apprehension ;  it 
was  the  suppression  of  paganism  by  law,  the  destruction 
of  heathen  temples  and  implements  of  idolatry,  the  con- 
fiscation of  property  consecrated  to  such  uses,  and  fines 
on  the  use  of  frankincense  and  libations.  These  things 
were  done  in  the  reigns  of  Gratian  and  Theodosius. 
Constantine  and  his  immediate  successors  were  tolerant 
towards  the  pagans.  The  edict  of  Milan  indicates  'the 
original  views  of  Constantine.  It  was  a  charter  of  re- 
ligious liberty  to  all.  The  spirit  of  persecution  arose 
under  the  influence  of  THE  HIERARCHY.  Penal  laws 
against  heresy  among  Christians  preceded  the  persecu- 
tions of  pagans.  Constantine  issued  two  such  laws,  The- 
odosius fifteen,  Arcadius  twelve,  Honorius  eighteen.  The 
Arians,  Donatists,  Pelagians,  Manicheans,  Priscillianists, 
and  Paulicians  were  among  the  more  prominent  perse- 
cuted heretical  sects.  The  Arians  in  their  turn,  when  in 
the  ascendant,  retaliated  on  the  orthodox.  But  the  Ro- 
man laws  did  not  punish  heresy  by  death.  Banishment, 
fine,  confiscation  of  goods,  infamy,  disqualification  to  buy 
or  sell,  exclusion  from  civil  and  military  honor  were  the 
common  penalties.  According  to  Mosheim,  however, 
some  of  the  Donatists  were  put  to  death  A.  D.  316, 
the  indignation  of  Constantine  being  aroused  by  their 
disregard  of  his  decision  against  them,  pronounced  after 


324         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

a  personal  investigation  —  their  case  having  been  previ- 
ously investigated  by  two  councils  summoned  by  his  au- 
thority, and  they  having  been  twice  before  condemned. 
Of  this  infliction,  however,  other  historians  say  nothing  ; 
and  Gieseler  expressly  says  that  the  first  instance  of  the 
judicial  execution  of  a  heretic  was  in  the  case  of  Priscil- 
lian,  A.  D.  385,  who  was,  with  others  of  his  followers, 
tried  and  executed  by  the  usurper  Maximus,  at  the  insti- 
gation of  the  Bishops  Idacius  and  Ithacius.  Hagenbach 
also  says  that  the  Priscillianists  were  the  first  heretics 
persecuted  by  the  sword. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  this  proceeding  at  that  time 
met  with  general  reprobation.  In  particular,  Martin  of 
Tours  and  Ambrose  of  Milan  loudly  condemned  it ;  and 
the  instigators  of  the  deed  were  finally  expelled  from 
their  bishoprics. 

Such  was  the  state  of  the  Christian  world  on  the  sub- 
ject of  persecution  when  Leo  was  called  to  meet  the  ques- 
tion, by  the  flight  of  large  numbers  of  the  Manichees  to 
Rome  from  Carthage  and  the  provinces  which  the  Van- 
dals under  Genseric  had  Overrun.  A  letter  from  Turri- 
bius,  Bishop  of  Astorga,  called  his  attention  to  the  revi- 
val and  spread  of  the  heresy  of  Priscillian  in  Spain. 
Leo  had  now  a  glorious  opportunity  to  set  forth  the  true 
principles  of  religious  liberty  and  to  rectify  the  errors 
of  preceding  years.  There  was,  it  is  plain,  deep  feeling 
in  the  church  against  punishing  heretics  by  death,  and 
the  guilt  and  folly  of  all  civil  pains  and  penalties  for  er- 
roneous opinions  could  have  been  clearly  shown.  The 
authority  of  the  earlier  fathers  could  have  been  easily 
adduced  against  them.  Tertullian  had  said,  "  Religion 
does  not  compel  religion  ;  "  Origen,  "  Christians  should 
not  use  the  sword  ; "  Lactantius,  "  Coercion  and  injury 
are  unnecessary  ;  for  religion  cannot  be  forced.  Barbar- 


THE   ROCK  PETER   AND   LEO  THE  GREAT.  325 

ity  and  piety  greatly  differ  from  each  other :  nor  can 
truth  be  conjoined  with  violence,  or  justice  with  cruelty. 
Religion  is  to  be  defended,  not  by  killing,  but  by  dying  ; 
not  by  inhumanity,  but  by  patience."  Cyprian  had  as- 
cribed to  Christ  alone  the  right  to  punish  for  opinions. 
Had  Leo  fallen  back  upon  such  authorities,  and  employed 
his  great  abilities  in  defence  of  religious  liberty,  how  glo- 
rious had  been  his  reward  !  He  could  have  turned  back 
the  Christian  world  to  the  true  and  lofty  ground  on 
which  they  once  stood  and  averted  the  infamy  of  future 
ages.  But  how  could  a  prelate,  whose  great  object  was 
to  exalt  the  authority  of  his  own  see  above  that  of  all 
others,  appreciate  the  dignity  and  glory  of  such  an  enter- 
prise? Power,  centralization,  rule  were  his  great  ideas  ; 
to  subjugate  the  human  mind  to  ecclesiastical  authority, 
not  to  give  it  liberty,  was  his  great  aim.  His  conduct 
may  be  inferred  from  these  principles.  It  may  be  also 
inferred  from  the  fact  that  in  later  times  Maimbourg  ap- 
peals to  the  writings  of  Leo  to  prove  that  heresy  is  a 
capital  crime  and  may  be  justly  punished  with  death. 
Leo,  then,  is  one  of  the  main  fountain  heads  from  which 
has  issued  that  river  of  blood  which  in  after  ages  deluged 
the  world.  How  little  could  he  comprehend  the  influence 
on  after  ages  of  a  few  words  written  by  him  in  defence  of 
the  system  of  religious  persecution  ! 

It  is  true  that  in  the  case  of  the  Manichees  he  did  not 
resort  to  capital  punishment  ;  nay,  he  says  that  it  was 
repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  church,  and  to  that  lenity 
in  which  she  places  her  chief  glory,  abhorring  to  shed  the 
blood  even  of  the  most  detestable  heretics.  But  the 
church  of  Rome  has  in  all  ages  made  the  same  profession. 
She  has  never  shed  the  blood  of  heretics  —  not  she  !  The 
true  test  is  this  :  Has  she  ev.er  justified  the  civil  magistrate 
in  shedding  it  ?  Has  she  ever  enjoined  it  upon  him  so  to 
os 


326        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

do  ?  So,  in  this  case,  the  true  test  to  be  applied  to  Leo 
is  this  :  How  did  he  regard  the  execution  of  Priscillian 
and  others  by  Maximus  ?  Did  he  justify  and  defend  it  ? 
Or  did  he, like  Martin  of  Tours,  reprobate  and  abhor  it? 
To  answer  these  questions,  we  only  need  to  read  his  letter 
to  Turribius,  who  had  implored  his  assistance  against  the 
Priscillianists.  In  this  he  condemns  their  doctrines  as  im- 
pious and  detestable  ;  declares  that  all  who  tolerate  here- 
sies are  no  less  guilty  than  those  who  embrace  them  ;  and 
justifies  the  execution  of  Priscillian  and  some  of  his  dis- 
ciples by  Maximus.  This  is  the  letter  to  which  Maim- 
bourg  appeals  to  prove  that  heresy  may  justly  be  punished 
by  death. 

But,  even  where  Leo  did  not  resort  to  the  penalty  of 
death,  he  used  every  other  form  of  persecution  with  the 
utmost  severity.  He  stirred  up  Valentinian  to  pass  a 
law  confirming  all  the  persecuting  edicts  of  his  predeces- 
sors against  the  Manichees.  Banishment,  confiscation, 
exclusion  from  civil  and  military  employments  and  hon- 
ors, incapacity  to  give  or  receive  by  will,  to  sue  at  law  or 
make  a  contract,  and  compelling  the  whole  community  to 
act  as  irresponsible  informers  against  them,  —  these  were 
the  penalties  attached  to  these  laws  ;  and  these  Leo  did  not 
deem  inconsistent  with  that  lenity  of  the  church  in  which 
she  places  her  chief  glory. 

Some  have,  indeed,  attempted  to  defend  the  execution  of 
Priscillian  on  the  ground  of  the  immoralities  of  which  he 
was  guilty  and  to  which  his  system  tended  ;  but,  when 
we  call  to  mind  that  the  Romish  party  defend  the  mur- 
der of  the  Albigenses  and  Waldenses  on  the  same  ground, 
we  ought  to  be  suspicious  of  such  a  defence.  The  opin- 
ions of  Priscillian  were,  indeed,  grossly  erroneous  as  they 
are  now  set  forth.  Neander  says  of  them,  that,  "  so  far  as 
we  can  gain  any  knowledge  of  them  from  the  meagre 


THE   EOCK   PETER   AND   LEO   THE   GREAT.  327 

accounts  of  their  adversaries,  Dualism  and  the  emanation 
theory  were  combined  together  in  them  —  elements  relat- 
ed to  Gnosticism  and  Manicheism.  Their  moral  system, 
as  their  doctrine  required,  was  rigidly  ascetic.  It  enjoined 
austerities  of  all  sorts,  and  in  particular  celibacy.  The 
charges  laid  against  them  of  dissolute  conduct  are,  to  say 
the  least,  not  sufficiently  well  authenticated."  Maximus, 
indeed,  alleged  that  Priscillian  confessed  his  crimes  ;  but 
Neander  distrusts  the  confession  if  made,  as  probably  in- 
voluntary and  extorted  by  the  rack.  It  should  also  be 
borne  in  mind  that,  after  heretics  have  been  executed, 
there  is  a  uniform  tendency  in  their  persecutors  to  defend 
tftemselves  by  bearing  false  witness  against  their  victims. 
Indeed  it  is  always  easy  to  change  heretical  contumacy 
into  the  crime  of  rebellion  against  the  civil  powers. 

It  is,  however,  but  fair  to  Leo  to  say  that  his  is  not  the 
only  great  name  of  that  age  to  whom  the  advocates  of 
persecution  may  appeal  for  support.  On  a  name  far  greater 
than  his  own  the  same  opprobrium  rests  —  even  that  of  Au- 
gustine, Bishop  .of  Hippo.  He  was  originally  tolerant  in 
his  views ;  but  becoming,  as  it  would  seem,  impatient  in  con- 
sequence of  the  perversity  of  the  Manichees  and  Donatists, 
he  was  led  to  advocate  and  defend  the  use  of  force.  "  It 
was  by  Augustine,"  says  Neander,  "  that  the  theory  was 
proposed  and  founded  which  contained  the  germs  of  that 
whole  system  of  spiritual  despotism,  of  intolerance,  and 
persecution  which  ended  in  the  tribunals  of  the  Inqui- 
sition." By  this  it  cannot  be  meant  that  the  practice  of 
persecution  had  not  begun  before  Augustine,  but  that  he 
first  devised  those  sophistical  arguments  which  in  after 
ages  were  used  in  its  defence.  He  did  not  defend  it  on 
the  ground  that  force  in  itself  tends  to  produce  direct  con- 
vie. ion  of  truth,  but  that  by  suffering  the  mind  may  be  so 
affected  that  it  shall  at  last  seek  to  know  the  truth.  This 


328        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

he  illustrated  by  a  reference  to  the  discipline  of  the  prov- 
idence of  God  and  of  a  father  ia  his  family.  He  seemed 
not  to  notice  that  such  discipline  is  not  for  error,  but  for 
sin,  and  that  it  involves  no  sense  of  violated  rights  ;  whereas 
all  efforts  to  convince  by  force  do  involve  a  sense  of  in- 
justice and  tend  to  reaction.  But  wretched  as  this  sophis- 
try is,  falling  in  as  it  did  with  the  tendencies  of  the  age, 
it  passed  for  argument.  But  sophistry  much  less  subtle 
was  resorted  to  by  Leo  in  defence  of  the  system  of  perse- 
cution to  which  he  stood  committed.  In  his  letter  to  Tur- 
ribius  he  says,  with  reference  to  the  execution  of  Priscillian, 
"  Such  a  use  of  the  sword  has  been  advantageous  to  the 
exercise  of  the  lenity  of  the  church,  who,  although  content 
to  give  ecclesiastical  decisions  and  averse  .to  shed  blood, 
is  nevertheless  aided  by  the  severe  laws  of  Christian 
princes ;  since  those  who  fear  bodily  punishment  will  be 
more  readily  disposed  to  seek  spiritual  salvation."  One 
might  almost  suppose  that  these  were  the  words  of  some 
gentle  inquisitor  of  modern  days  whose  tender  heart  re- 
volts from  shedding  blood,  but  is  intent  on  saving  the  souls 
of  his  victims  by  the  terrors  of  dungeons,  the  rack,  the 
scaffold,  and  the  fires  of  an  auto  dafe. 

5.  We  now  come  to  consider  the  fifth  and  last  class  of 
the  acts  of  Leo — namely,  those  relating  to  the  sacraments 
and  discipline  of  the  church. 

These  topics,  it  must  be  conceded,  much  occupied  his 
thoughts,  and  occur  very  frequently  in  his  letters.  And 
yet  he  accomplished  little  in  these  particulars  that  left  a 
bold  and  definite  impress  on  future  ages.  Indeed  some 
of  his  decisions  have  since  been  reversed  and  branded  as 
heretical  by  the  church  of  Rome.  This  is  particularly 
true  of  his  decision  on  the  effects  of  the  baptism  of  here- 
tics. The  present  doctrine  of  the  Romish  church  is,  that 
such  baptism  is  not  devoid  of  saving  power,  but  remits  sin, 


THE  ROCK  PETER  AND   LEO  THE  GREAT.  329 

confers  grace,  and  sanctifies  as  really  as  the  baptism  of  the 
church.  But  Leo  decided  that  those  baptized  by  heretics 
received  nothing  but  the  external  form  of  baptism,  and 
still  need  an  imposition  of  hands,  and  an  invocation  of 
the  Holy  Ghost  by  the  church,  in  order  to  receive  the  in- 
ward power  and  sanctification  of  baptism. 

The  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  one  great  pillar  of  the  Papal 
edifice,  Leo  found  already  enjoined  by  a  decree  of  his 
predecessor,  Siricius,  A.  D.  385.  He  merely  extended  the 
prohibition  to  subdeacons,  who  had  before  been  exempt 
from  the  law.  Here,  too,  Leo  failed  to  exert  his  power 
to  check  the  progress  of  the  Gnostic  and  ascetic  apostasy. 
This  pernicious  interdiction  of  marriage  to  the  clergy 
was  totally  unknown  in  the  first  three  centurie^s.  In  the 
fourth,  Jerome  tells  us  that  the  married  clergy  were  pre- 
ferred to  the  unmarried  by  the  majority  of  the  community. 
In  the  celebrated  council  of  Nice,  A.  D.  325,  it  was  pro- 
posed to  enjoin  continence  on  the  clergy  who  were  already 
married  ;  but  Paphnutius,  one  of  the  most  eminent  prelates 
of  the  time,  himself  unmarried,  vindicated  the  purity  of 
the  marriage  state,  and  protested  against  imposing  on  the 
clergy  burdens  that  they  could  not  bear.  The  council, 
influenced  by  him,  refused  to  enact  the  canon  proposed. 
Still  Paphnutius  was  in  favor  of  celibacy  in  the  clergy 
not  already  married.  Sixty  years  after  this,  the  decree 
of  Siricius  was  promulgated,  enjoining  celibacy  on  the 
clergy,  and  soon  after  it  was  enjoined  by  councils  in  Af- 
rica, Gaul,  Spain,  and  Germany.  This  resulted  so  directly 
from  the  spirit  of  the  great  Gnostic  apostasy  then  coming 
to  its  crisis  that  Leo  might  have  utterly  failed  if  he  had 
opposed  it.  But  it  would  have  been  glorious  even  to  fail 
in  such  an  attempt.  But  nothing  of  the  kind  could  be 
rationally  expected  from  him ;  nothing  of  the  kind  was 
attempted  by  him.  He  sanctioned  a  practice  which  has 
28* 


330        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

in  all  ages  made  the  Romish  church,  literally  as  well  as 
spiritually,  "  the  mother  of  harlots  and  of  abominations 
of  the  earth."  The  evils  of  the  system  did  indeed  at 
length  lead  to  a  reaction  towards  the  marriage  of  the  cler- 
gy, as  we  have  stated.  But  Gregory  VII.  resisted  this, 
and  confirmed  the  present  pernicious  system. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


PERIOD  OF  GREGORY  VII.,  THE  PATRON   SAINT   OF  THE 
ROMISH  BISHOPS   OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


"WE  have  called  the  period  from  the  eleventh  to  the 
sixteenth  century  the  Papal  period.  It  is  eminently 
such.  It  discloses  the  theory  and  practice  of  Popery 
in  their  perfection. 

It  may  with  no  less  propriety  be  called  the  period  of 
Gregory  VIL,  for  he  was  the  great  master  builder  who 
combined  the  forgeries  and  frauds  of  all  preceding  ages, 
augmented  by  so'me  of  his  own,  into  the  model  of  that 
gigantic  ecclesiastical  despotism  that  during  four  centu- 
ries reigned  sole  monarch  of  Christendom. 

It  becomes  us,  as  Americans,  to  feel  a  peculiar  interest 
in  this  period.  The  bishops  of  the  Romish  church  who 
reside  in  these  United  States  have  seen  fit  to  introduce 
into  this  free  land  the  festival  of  that  pontiff  by  whom 
this  system  of  centralized  despotism  was  founded  and  by 
whose  principles  it  was  established.  He  is  therefore,  in 
a  peculiar  sense,  their  patron  saint. 

It  is  well  that  they  have  taken  this  ground.  They  are 
parts  of  the  great  central  corporation.  Each  of  them  is 
bound  to  the  pope  by  a  feudal  oath  of  which  Gregory  was 
the  author.  These  men  know  its  import  and  to  what 
principles  it  commits  them.  They  also  know  that  his 
canonization  implies  a  full  sanction  of  these  principles. 

(331) 


332        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Is  it  not  well,  then,  for  Americans  to  understand  what 
they  are  ? 

We  have  seen  what  materials  Leo  I.  and  Nicholas  I., 
with  their  fellow-laborers  in  the  same  cause,  had  pre- 
pared. At  the  accession  of  Gregory  VII.  the  time  to  use 
them  had  fully  come. 

Two  things  were  to  be  effected.  The  bishops  were  to 
be  detached  from  all  earthly  sovereigns,  and  as  subjugated 
vassals  to  be  bound  to  the  pope  as  their  supreme  lord  by 
feudal  oaths.  The  bishops  also,  and  especially  the  pope, 
their  head,  were  to  be  emancipated  from  subjection  to  the 
Emperor  of  Germany  and  other  civil  rulers,  and  made  an 
independent  spiritual  power.  Nor  was  this  all.  The 
kings  of  Europe  were  to  be  subjected  to  him  as  his  sub- 
jects and  vassals.  To  carry  out  the  last  part  of  this  great 
scheme  Gregory  needed  forgeries  of  his  own  —  for  which, 
as  we  shall  see,  he  was  never  at  a  loss.  Let  us  now  con- 
sider the  execution  of  his  plan. 


GREGORY  ASSAILS  HENRY  IV. 

The  imperial  power  had  passed  from  the  Frankish  to 
the  German  emperors.  The  popes  had  risen  from  the 
degradation  into  which  they  fell  for  a  time  after  the  Pa- 
pacy of  Nicholas  I.  The  sceptre  of  the  German  empire 
was  not  swayed  by  an  emperor  of  undisputed  and  resist- 
less authority  like  Otho  the  Great.  On  the  other  hand, 
Henry  IV.,  a  youth,  was  enfeebled  by  a  rebellion  among 
his  Saxon  subjects.  There  was  also,  to  a  considerable 
extent,  a  disposition  among  the  barons  of  the  empire  to 
take  sides  with  the  pope  against  Henry,  at  least  until  they 
had  reduced  the  power  and  prerogatives  of  the  emperor. 
There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  there  were  ju?t  causes  of 


PERIOD   OF   GREGORY  VII.  333 

complaint  against  Henry ;  but  it  was  not  a  regard  to 
them,  but  a  purpose  to  emancipate  the  Romish  church 
from  the  imperial  power  and  to  establish  a  theocracy 
over  kings,  that  impelled  Gregory  in  his  usurping  career. 

It  was  a  right  of  the  emperor  to  invest  the  Romish 
bishops  in  the  empire  with  the  insignia  of  spiritual  and 
temporal  authority,  receiving  from  them  at  the  same  time 
an  acknowledgment  of  his  sovereignty  and  promises  of 
allegiance.  Gregory  determined  to  wrest  the  whole  of 
this  authority  from  the  emperor  and  to  vest  it  in  himself. 
He  attacked  him  almost  immediately  after  he  had  ascended 
the  imperial  throne  and  when  weakened  by  the  revolt  of 
the  Saxons.  Alleging  that  the  power  of  the  emperors  had 
been  abused  by  the  sale  of  bishoprics  and  otherwise,  he 
commanded  Henry  to  relinquish  his  prerogatives  to  the 
pope.  Henry  of  course  refused  to  comply  with  the  inso- 
lent demand.  Hereupon  the  pope  summoned  Henry  to 
appear  before  him  to  answer  to  charges  to  be  preferred 
against  him.  Henry,  enraged  at  such  usurping  insolence, 
summoned  a  council  at  Worms  and  deposed  Gregory  and 
appointed  a  successor.  Gregory  then,  in  a  council  at 
Rome,  deposed  the  emperor,  and  by  authority  received  as 
he  alleged  from  Peter,  released  his  subjects  from  their  al- 
legiance and  forbade  them  to  obey  him.  Thus  was  opened 
a  new  era  in  the  history  of  the  Papacy  and  of  the  world. 

In  this  act  of  deposition  no  reference  at  all  was  made 
to  any  complaints  of  the  subjects  of  Henry  against  him. 
The  only  crime  for  which  he  was  deposed  was  rebellion 
against  St.  Peter  in  the  person  of  Gregory. 

This  was  the  first  act  in  a  campaign  of  centuries.  It 
inaugurated  a  new  theocracy  on  earth.  It  disclosed  a 
plan  to  make  all  kings  but  the  humble  vassals  of  the  holy 
see  of  Rome. 

Had  there  been  no  civil  war  and  no  hostility  to  Henry 


THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  deposition  would  have  been  powerless.  As  it  was,  it 
raised  against  him  a  powerful  party,  who  determined  to 
regard  him  as  deposed  and  to  appoint  a  successor  unless 
Henry  would  submit  to  the  pope  and  obtain  absolution. 
And  now  the  imperial  majesty  was  degraded  indeed. 
Urged  by  the  danger  of  losing  his  crown,  in  midwinter, 
and  at  the  expense  of  much  toil  and  suffering,  Henry 
crossed  the  Alps  into  Italy,  and  at  the  fortress  of  Canossa 
humbled  himself  before  the  pope  and  sought  absolution. 
Gregory  determined  to  use  his  power  to  degrade  him  to 
the  uttermost.  Three  days  he  refused  to  see  him,  and 
kept  him  standing  in  the  cold  air  imprisoned  between  the 
outer  and  inner  walls  of  the  castle,  barefooted  and  in  the 
garb  of  a  penitent.  Nor  would  he  at  last  give  the  uncon- 
ditional absolution  that  Henry  Demanded.  He  restored 
him  to  communion,  but  forbade  him  to  reign  until  he  had 
been  tried  before  himself  in  a  German  council  that  was  at 
hand. 

A  large  party  of  the  Italian  subjects  of  Henry,  indig- 
nant at  the  insolence  and  usurpation  of  the  pope,  rallied 
around  him  ;  and,  thus  encouraged,  he  refused  to  go  to  the 
council,  and  again  defied  the  pope.  Hereupon  a  succes- 
sor, Rodolph,  Duke  of  Swabia,  was  appointed  in  Germany, 
to  whom  Gregory  gave  the  crown,  and  from  whom  he  re- 
ceived a  feudal  oath,  as  his  vassal. 

Henry,  however,  defeated  and  slew  Rodolph,  and  at 
last  banished  Gregory  from  Rome,  established  another 
pope  as  his  successor,  and  from  him  received  the  im- 
perial crown. 

GREGORY'S  PRINCIPLES  TRIUMPH. 

Gregory  died  in  exile  at  Salerno  ;  but  his  successors 
inherited  his  spirit  and  principles  and  carried  011  the  war 


PERIOD   OP  GREGORY  VII.  335 

which  he  had  begun,  and  at  the  end  of  a  century  had 
gained  the  victory.  In  the  days  of  Innocent  III.,  to  use 
the  words  of  Hallam,  "  The  maxims  of  Gregory  VII.  had 
been  matured  by  more  than  a  hundred  years,  and  the  right 
of  trampling  upon  the  necks  of  kings  had  been  received, 
at  least  among  churchmen,  as  an  inherent  attribute  of  the 
Papacy.  '  As  the  sun  and  the  moon  are  placed  in  the 
firmament,'  (such  is  the  language  of  Innocent,)  '  the  greater 
as  the  light  of  the  day  and  the  lesser  of  the  night :  thus 
are  there  two  powers  in  the  church  —  the  pontifical,  which, 
as  having  the  charge  of  souls,  is  the  greater  ;  and  the  royal, 
which  is  the  less,  and  to  which  the  bodies  of  men  only  are 
intrusted.'  Intoxicated  with  these  conceptions,  (if  we  may 
apply  such  a  word  to  successful  ambition,)  he  thought  no 
quarrel  of  princes  beyond  the  sphere  of  his  jurisdiction." 
In  another  place  he  says,  "  The  noonday  of  Papal  dominion 
extends  from  the  pontificate  of  Innocent  III.  inclusively 
to  that  of  Boniface  VIII. ;  or,  in  other  words,  through  the 
thirteenth  century.  Rome  inspired  during  all  this  age 
the  terrors  of  her  ancient  name.  She  was  once  more  the 
distress  of  the  world,  and  kings  were  her  vassals." 


THE  CANON  LAW. 

Then  was  fully  developed  the  canon  law,  based  on  the 
forged  decretals,  but  rising  even  above  them  in  extrava- 
gance of  claims.  The  decretals  of  Gregory  and  of  other 
pontiffs  after  him,  especially  of  Innocent  III.,  form  a  large 
portion  of  its  substance.  To  exalt  the  Papacy  above  all 
earthly  power  is  its  great  aim.  It  expressly  declares  that 
"  the  pope  does  not  fill  the  place  of  a  mere  man,  but  of 
the  true  God  on  earth."  It  declares  his  divine  right  to  de- 
pose monarchs  and  to  absolve  subjects  from  their  oaths  of 


^336         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

allegiance.  In  short,  it  ascribes  to  him  all  the  rights  and 
prerogatives  of  God,  and  some  which  he  does  not  claim. 
God  never  claimed  superiority  to  the  laws  of  right  or  the 
power  to  dispense  with  them.  It  was  reserved  for  the 
Pope  of  Rome  to  make  this  claim.  Thus  has  he  exalted 
himself  above  all  that  is  called  God  or  worshipped  ;  thus 
has  he,  as  God,  sat  in  the  temple  of  God,  showing  himself 
that  he  is  God. 

THE  BISHOP'S  OATH. 

Of  the  Papal  supremacy  over  kings  enough  has  been 
said.  The  subjugation  and  centralization  of  the  bishops 
were  no  less  complete.  By  the  law  of  celibacy  they  were 
detached  from  all  local  interests  and  ties ;  and,  to  complete 
the  work,  the  regulation,  that  no  bishop  should  exercise  his 
functions  until  confirmed  by  the  pope,  resulted  in  binding 
them  all  to  him  by  a  feudal  oath  as  his  conquered  vassals. 
Of  this  regulation  Hallam  says,  "It  was  one  of  vast  impor- 
tance, through  which,  beyond,  perhaps,  any  other  means. 
Rome  has  sustained,  and  still  sustains,  her  temporal  influ- 
ence as  well  as  her  ecclesiastical  supremacy."  Such  is  the 
origin  and  such  the  influence  of  the  odious,  humiliating, 
and  disgraceful  bishop's  oath.  No  rightminded  man  can 
regard  without  pity  the  degeneracy  of  the  miserable  men 
who  take  it. 

When  we  consider  how  gross  the  forgeries  on  which  the 
Papal  supremacy  of  jurisdiction  is  based,  how  directly  and 
expressly  it  is  in  violation  of  the  laws  of  Christ,  and  at 
war  with  the  just  liberty,  equality,  and  independence  en- 
joyed by  the  pastors  of  churches  in  the  early  ages,  it  will 
at  once  become  apparent  how  utterly  degraded  is  the 
position  of  all  Romish  bishops  and  how  infamous  the  oath 
by  which  they  are  bound.  That  oath  is  as  follows  :  — 


PERIOD   OP  GREGORY  VII.  337 

"  I,  N.,  elect  of  the  Church  of  N.,  from  henceforward 
be  faithful  and  obedient  to  St.  Peter  the  apostle,  and 
to  the  holy  Roman  church,  and  to  our  lord  the  Lord  N., 
Pope  N.,  and  to  his  successors  canonically  coining  in.  I 
will  neither  advise,  consent,  or  do  any  thing  that  may 
lose  life  or  member,  or  that  their  persons  may  be  seized 
or  hands  any  wise  laid  upon  them,  or  any  injuries  offered  to 
them  under  any  pretence  whatsoever.  The  counsel  which 
they  shall  intrust  me  withal,  by  themselves,  their  messen- 
gers, or  letters,  I  will  not  knowingly  reveal  to  any  to  their 
prejudice.  I  will  help  them  to  defend  and  keep  the  Roman 
Papacy  and  the  royalties  of  St.  Peter,  saving  my  order, 
against  all  men.  The  legate  of  the  apostolic  see,  going 
and  coming,  I  will  honorably  treat  and  help  in  his  necessi- 
ties. The  rights,  honors,  privileges,  and  authority  of  the 
holy  Roman  church,  of  our  lord  the  pope,  and  his  foresaid 
successors,  I  will  endeavor  to  preserve,  defend,  increase, 
and  advance.  I  will  not  be  in  any  counsel,  action,  or 
treaty  in  which  shall  be  plotted  against  our  said  lord  and 
the  said  Roman  church  any  thing  to  the  hurt  or  prejudice 
of  their  persons,  right,  honor,  state,  or  power  ;  and,  if  I 
shall  know  any  such  thing  to  be  treated  or  agitated  by  any 
whatsoever,  I  will  hinder  it  to  my  power,  and  as  soon  as 
I  can  will  signify  it  to  our  said  lord,  or  to  some  other  by 
whom  it  may  come  to  his  knowledge.  The  rules  of  the 
holy  fathers,  the  apostolic  decrees,  ordinances,  or  disposals, 
reservations,  provisions,  and  mandates  I  will  observe  with 
all  my  might  and  cause  to  be  observed  by  others.  Here- 
tics, schismatics,  and  rebels  to  our  said  lord  or  his  fore- 
said  successors  I  will  to  my  utmost  power  persecute  and 
wage  war  with.  I  will  come  to  a  council  when  I  am 
called  unless  I  be  hindered  by  a  canonical  impediment. 
I  will  by  myself,  in  person,  visit  the  threshold  of  the 
apostles  every  three  years,  and  give  an  account  to  our 
lord  and  his  foresaid  successors  of  all  my  pastoral  office, 
and  of  all  things  any  wise  belonging  to  the  state  of  my 
church,  to  the  discipline  of  my  clergy  and  people,  and 
lastly  to  the  salvation  of  souls  committed  to  my  trust, 
and  will  in  like  manner  humbly  receive  and  diligently 
execute  the  apostolic  commands.  And,  if  I  be  detained  by 
a  lawful  impediment,  I  will  perform  all  the  things  afore- 
29 


838         TEE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSES. 

said  by  a  certain  messenger  hereto  specially  empowered, 
a  member  of  my  chapter,  or  some  other  in  ecclesiastical 
dignity  or  else  having  a  parsonage  ;  or,  in  default  of  these, 
by  a  priest  of  the  diocese ;  or,  in  default  of  one  of  the 
clergy  (of  the  diocese,)  by  some  other  secular  or  regular 
priest  of  approved  integrity  and  religion,  fully  instructed 
in  all  things  above  mentioned.  And  such  impediment  I 
will  make  out  by  lawful  proofs  to  be  transmitted  by  the 
foresaid  messenger  to  the  cardinal  proponent  of  the  holy 
Roman  church  in  the  congregation  of  the  Sacred  Council. 
The  possessions  belonging  to  my  table  I  will  neither  sell, 
nor  give  away,  nor  mortgage,  nor  grant  anew  in  fee,  nor 
any  wise  alienate,  —  no,  not  even  with  the  consent  of  the 
chapter  of  my  church,  —  without  consulting  the  Roman 
pontiff.  And,  if  I  shall  make  any  alienation,  I  will  there- 
by incur  the  penalties  contained  in  a  certain  constitution  put 
forth  about  this  matter.  So  help  me  God  and  those  holy 
Gospels  of  God." 

The  real  nature  and  origin  of  this  oath  cannot  be  hid- 
den for  a  moment.  It  regards  the  pope  as  a  feudal  mon- 
arch, and  makes  every  bishop  his  sworn  vassal  —  obliged 
to  come  at  his  call,  keep  his  secrets,  defend  his  interests, 
assail,  and  if  possible  destroy,  his  enemies  the  heretics, 
and  in  all  things  be  an  obedient  slave  to  his  will. 

Let  the  origin  of  this  oath,  then,  never  be  forgotten.  Let 
the  principles  and  practice  of  the  age  of  Gregory  VII.,  In- 
nocent III.,  and  Boniface  VIII.  be  recalled  and  reviewed  as 
set  forth  in  the  first  part  of  this  work.  Let  the  import  of 
"  the  royalties  of  St.  Peter,"  and  "  the  rights,  honors,  priv- 
ileges, and  authority  of  the  holy  Roman  church  of  our 
lord  the  pope  and  his  foresaid  successors"  be  interpreted 
in  the  light  of  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  age  in 
which  the  oath  originated.  All  these  the  Romish  bishops 
who  reside  in  America  are  sworn  to  "  preserve,  defend,  in- 
crease, and  advance."  Consider  what  is  implied  in  "  the 
APOSTOLIC  DECREES,  ordinances,  or  disposals,  reservations, 


PERIOD  OP  GREGORY  VII.  339 

provisions,  or  mandates."  Does  not  this  include  the  canon 
law,  in  which  the  temporal  supremacy  of  the  pope  is  car- 
ried to  the  highest  point  ?  Does  it  not  include  the  depos- 
ing power,  the  absolution  from  oaths,  perfidy  to  heretics, 
the  persecution  of  heretics,  and  other  similar  doctrines  of 
the  canon  law  ?  But  why  ask  this  question  as  to  the  per- 
secution of  heretics  ?  Does  not  the  oath  expressly  demand 
the  promise  "  to  persecute  and  wage  war  with  heretics, 
schismatics,  and  rebels  to  our  said  lord  the  pope  to  their 
utmost  power  "  ?  It  is  in  vain  to  try  to  evade  the  import 
of  this  part  of  the  oath,  as  does  Bishop  Kenrick,  by  say- 
ing that  it  denotes  merely  moral  warfare  by  the  truth. 
This  is  an  evasion  worthy  only  of  a  Jesuit.  Was  the 
duty  of  bishops  towards  heretics  so  understood  in  the  age 
of  Gregory,  when  the  oath  first  originated  ?  Is  it  so  un- 
derstood in  the  canon  law  which  the  bishop  has  sworn  to 
observe  ? 

Let  it  be  noticed  that  this  oath  binds  by  its  own  force  to 
obey  the  pope's  decrees  independently  of  a  general  council. 
It  is  an  oath  that  in  reality  represents  the  views  of  THE 
ITALIAN  PARTY  ;  that  is,  of  the  highest  advocates  of  the 
Papal  power.  It  is  an  oath  framed  by  the  head  of  the 
Roman  court.  Call  to  mind,  now,  the 'expressions  of  hatred, 
abhorrence,  and  utter  detestation  with  which  the  popes  even 
at  this  very  time  speak  of  the  principles  of  religious  liberty 
on  which  this  nation  is  founded,  and  their  steadfast  purpose 
to  oppose  to  their  progress  an  iron  will,  and  the  conclusion 
is  plain  :  either  the  bishops  who  take  the  oath  are  perjured, 
or  else  they  do  and  will,  to  their  utmost  energy,  cooperate 
with  the  pope  to  subvert  our  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
and  in  place  of  them  to  establish  the  intolerant,  persecut- 
ing, and  bloody  despotism  of  the  pope.  But  perjury  to 
himself  the  pope  never  allows.  In  his  own  behalf  he 
sanctions  and  enjoins  it ;  but  against  himself  it  is  an  unpar- 
donable sin. 


340         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Such,  then,  are  the  institutions  of  the  canonized  Gregory, 
whom  our  American  bishops  honor  as  a  saint.  We  com- 
mend them  to  the  careful  consideration  of  American  free- 
men. 

It  was  by  the  same  Gregory  also,  although  before  his 
Papacy,  that  the  present  mode  of  electing  the  popes  by 
cardinals  was  introduced.  This  was  another  important 
step  in  the  work  of  securing  the  independency  of  the 
Papacy  of  all  secular  power,  and  it  has  contributed  greatly 
to  the  strength  and  perpetuity  of  the  whole  Papal  system. 


GREGORY'S  IMPOSTURES. 

We  have  said  that  Gregory  resorted  to  forgery  and 
fraud  in  carrying  out  his  purpose  of  making  the  monarchs 
of  Europe  his  vassals.  Of  this  we  find  a  striking  case  in 
a  pretended  quotation  of  his  from  what  he  asserts  to  be  a 
statute  of  the  Emperor  Charlemagne,  declaring  that  France, 
as  a  feudatory  of  the  holy  see,  was  bound  to  pay  an  annual 
tribute  called  Peter's  pence.  He  declared  that  this  tribute 
was,  by  order  of  Charlemagne,  collected  yearly  at  Puy,  in 
Velai,  at  Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  at  St.  Giles.  This  statute 
was  lodged,  as  he  says,  in  the  archives  of  St.  Peter's  Church. 
This  absurd  pretence  was  in  substance  a  second  and 
revised  edition  of  the  old  forgery  of  the  donation  of  Con- 
stantine.  Yet  he  insisted  upon  the  tribute  upon  this 
ground. 

So  he  set  up  a  claim  that  Spain  originally  belonged  to 
Peter,  and  on  this  ground  authorized  Count  Euvulus  to 
conquer  those  parts  of  it  occupied  by  the  Moors  in  his 
name,  and  to  hold  them  as  a  feudatory  and  tributary  of 
St.  Peter.  He  demanded  tribute  also  of  all  the  Christian 
kings  of  Spain  on  the  same  ground. 


PERIOD   OP  GREGORY  VII.  341 

He  claimed  Hungary  from  King  Solomon  as  a  gift  to 
Peter  from  Stephen,  the  first  Christian  king.  Solomon  re- 
sisted the  demand  on  the  ground  of  allegiance  to  the  em- 
peror, but  was  driven  from  the  throne  by  his  cousin  Geisa  ; 
and  on  him  Gregory  conferred  the  kingdom  on  condition 
that  he  would  be  his  vassal,  and  not  that  of  the  emperor. 
In  like  manner  he  laid  claim  to  Corsica,  Sardinia,  Dalma- 
tia,  Russia,  Denmark,  Poland,  Saxony,  and  England,  as  fiefs 
of  the  apostle  Peter.  In  Italy  the  Normans,  masters 
of  Apulia,  Calabria,  and  Sicily,  the  Dukes  of  Benevento, 
Capua,  and  Aversa,  and  other  princes,  swore  allegiance 
to  Gregory,  lest  if  they  did  not  he  should  stir  up  other 
monarchs  to  invade  them.  A  more  barefaced  system  of 
imposition,  fraud,  and  villany  was  never  practised ;  and 
yet  it  is  only  a  consistent  extension  of  the  principles  of 
the  forged  decretals.  All  of  these  proceedings  were  car- 
ried on  by  Gregory  in  a  style  of  eminent  Papal  sanctity 
and  authority.  The  details  may  be  found  in  his  letters  and 
in  Bower's  Lives  of  the  Popes.  On  these  proceedings 
Hallam  remarks,  "  It  was  convenient  to  treat  this  apostle 
as  a  great  feudal  suzerain;  and  the  legal  principles  of  that 
age  were  dexterously  applied  to  rivet  more  forcibly  the 
fetters  of  superstition." 

Such  is  the  morality  of  St.  Gregory  VII.,  the  patron 
saint  of  the  Bishops  of  Rome  who  sojourn  in  these  United 
States.  But  in  all  this  he  has  but  followed  sainted  popes 
of  other  ages.  All  the  great  architects  of  the  Romish 
Babylon  have  been  men  of  a  kindred  character.  Bold, 
energetic,  aspiring,  intelligent,  in  ages  of  darkness  they 
have,  on  principle  and  without  scruple,  resorted  to  the 
use  of  forgery  and  fraud  to  establish  their  usurped  author- 
ity over  a  subjugated  world. 
29* 


CHAPTER   VII. 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  DISPENSATION  OF  GREGORY  VIL 

WE  have  traced  the  formation  of  the  Romish  corpora- 
tion to  the  time  of  its  maturity  and  full  development. 

'  Let  us  now  consider  some  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
age  when  it  developed  itself  without  impediment. 

First  of  all  it  follows  from  the  necessity  of  the  case 
that  it  must  have  been  eminently  a  period  of  credulity. 
It  was,  of  necessity,  entirely  devoid  of  the  critical  and 
historic  spirit.  To  a  great  extent  all  men  lived  in  an 
unnatural,  mythical,  dreamy  world  ;  this  was  the  inevita- 
ble result  of  that  training  to  which  the  barbarous  nations 
had  been  long  subjected  by  means  of  that  widespread  sys- 
tem of  pious  fraud  which  has  been  described  and  the  false 
system  in  which  it  resulted.  The  whole  energy  of  the  ec- 
clesiastics of  "Western  Europe  was  put  forth  to  develop 
and  cultivate  habits  of  credulity  as  the  basis  of  hierarchal 
power.  The  whole  European  mind  was  thus  immersed 
into  a  lake  of  credulity,  until  it  was  thereby  steeped  and 
impregnated  in  all  its  faculties,  and,  even  in  its  very  es- 
sence, with  credulity.  Such  were  the  ages  sometimes  mis- 
called the  ages  of  faith. 

The  consequence  of  this  was,  that  the  system  introduced 
and  established  operated  with  immense,  with  inconceivable, 
power.  Bungling  as  were  the  forged  decretals,  the  dona- 
tion of  Constantine,  and  other  similar  forgeries,  yet,  being 

(312) 


DISPENSATION   OF  GREGORY  TIL  843 

fully  believed,  they  exercised  an  equal  power  with  the 
word  of  God. 

Nor  is  the  existence  of  the  scholastic  divinity  inconsist- 
ent with  this  statement.  That  was,  no  doubt,  a  powerful 
development  of  systematizing  and  of  logic  ;  but  the  prem- 
ises were  furnished  by  the  hierarchy,  and  were  to  be 
received  without  dispute,  on  peril  of  anathemas  and  ex- 
communications. History  and  intelligent  criticism  had 
no  place  in  their  studies.  Hence  they  did  not  detect  or 
expose  the  forged  decretals  nor  any  of  the  frauds  of  other 
ages.  They  ground  in  the  great  mill  of  the  Papacy  like 
blinded  Samson  in  the  mill  of  the  Philistines.  Nay,  more  : 
they  forged  new  shackles  for  humanity  by  developing  and 
defending  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  the  Papacy,  such  as 
transubstantiation,  purgatory,  and  the  seven  sacraments. 

It  is  a  natural  result  from  the  preceding  statements 
that  this  was  an  age  of  profound  superstition.  The  world 
was  darkened  by  false  views  of  God  and  the  unreal  terrors 
of  the  Papacy.  The  excess  of  terror  produced  in  the 
boldest  minds  by  excommunication  is  to  us  inconceivable, 
and  an  interdict  was  the  climax  of  horrors.  An  interdict 
was  the  suspension  of  all  the  ordinary  offices  of  religion 
throughout  a  whole  province,  or  kingdom,  commonly  for 
the  sin  of  some  ruler.  It  was  designed  by  the  pope  to 
subdue  the  refractory  spirit  of  such  ruler  by  the  terrors 
of  his  subjects.  In  the  ages  of  the  deepest  credulity  it 
was  as  if  the  sun  was  turned  into  darkness  and  the  moon 
into  blood  —  as  if  the  stars  were  falling  from  heaven  and 
all  the  powers  of  heaven  were  shaken.  By  it  God  was 
eclipsed,  heaven  shut  up,  and  hell  opened.  "  The  churches," 
says  Hallam,  "  were  closed,  the  bells  silent,  the  dead  un- 
buried,  no  rite  but  those  of  baptism  and  extreme  unction 
performed.  The  penalty  fell  upon  those  who  had  neither 
partaken  nor  could  have  prevented  the  offence  ;  and  the 


344         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

offence  was  often  but  a  private  dispute,  in  which  the  pride 
of  a  pope  or  bishop  had  been  wounded.  They  were  issued 
not  unfrequently  against  kingdoms ;  but  in  particular 
districts  they  continually  occurred."  With  regard  to  the 
policy  of  Rome  in  issuing  such  interdicts  Hallam  justly 
remarks,  "  No  stretch  of  her  tyranny  was,  perhaps,  so  out- 
rageous as  this." 

The  terrors  of  excommunication,  though  commonly  not 
so  widespread,  were  equally  vivid  and  overpowering. 
The  church  not  only  excluded  from  communion,  but  with 
all  her  power  poured  odium  upon  her  victims.  In  the 
words  of  Hallam,  "  They  were  to  be  shunned  like  men  in- 
fected with  leprosy  by  their  servants,  their  friends,  and 
their  families.  Two  attendants  only  (if  we  may  trust  a 
current  history)  remained  with  Robert,  King  of  France, 
who,  on  account  of  an  irregular  marriage,  was  put  to  this 
ban  by  Gregory  Y.  ;  and  these  threw  all  the  meats  that 
had  passed  his  table  into  the  fire.  Indeed  the  mere  inter- 
course with  a  proscribed  person  incurred  what  was  called 
the  lesser  excommunication,  or  privation  of  the  sacraments, 
and  required  penitence  and  absolution.  In  some  places  a 
bier  was  set  before  the  door  of  an  excommunicated  indi- 
vidual and  stones  thrown  at  his  windows  —  a  singular 
method  of  compelling  his  submission !  Every  where  the 
excommunicated  were  debarred  of  a  regular  sepulture, 
which,  though  obviously  a  matter  of  police,  has,  through 
the  superstition  of  consecrating  burial  grounds,  been 
treated  as  belonging  to  ecclesiastical  control." 

In  this  age  also  there  was  an  entire  subversion  of  all 
moral  principle  in  the  constant  effort  of  the  pope  and  his 
corporation  to  exaggerate  the  guilt  of  heresy,  —  that  is,  of 
resistance  to  their  decisions  and  their  authority,  —  and  to 
extirpate  it  by  fire  and  sword.  If  any,  repelled  by  the 
gross  immorality  of  the  clergy,  had  recourse  to  the  Bible 


DISPENSATION   OF  GREGORY  TIL  345 

for  a  purer  religion,  it  mattered  not  if  they  manifested 
every  element  of  the  Christian  character.  It  was  in  vain 
that  they  were  chaste,  temperate,  industrious,  benevolent, 
compassionate,  intelligent,  and  in  all  respects  pure  in 
heart  and  life  :  the  one  sin  of  heresy  —  that  is,  resistance  to 
the  pope  —  outweighed  it  all.  On  the  other  hand,  fraud, 
perjury,  lust,  uncleanness,  murder,  violence,  plunder  were 
all  transmuted  into  virtues  by  the  popes,  and  rewarded 
with  the  pardon  of  sin  and  the  promise  of  heaven  if  they 
were  but  employed  for  the  church  in  the  extermination  of 
heretics.  The  whole  history  of  the  crusades  against  the 
Albigenses,  of  which  Innocent  III.  was  the  life  and  soul, 
is  full  of  illustrations  of  the  truth  of  these  remarks.  Nor 
was  it  enough  to  torture  and  murder  the  pure  and  the  in- 
nocent. Slander  was  added  ;  and  those  crimes  of  impurity 
which  rendered  the  Romish  clergy  justly  infamous  were 
falsely  imputed  to  their  pure  and  innocent  victims. 

So  utterly  had  the  church  thus  perverted  the  moral  sense 
of  the  masses  that  they  entered  with  rapturous  joy  on  the 
work  of  massacre  if  heretics  were  to  be  the  objects  of 
assault.  In  these  works  of  blood  the  popes  were  ever 
the  mainspring,  and  ecclesiastics  their  mcrst  infuriated  in- 
struments. Moreover  the  whole  bloody  work  was  done 
under  the  forms  of  religion,  and  massacres  the  most  atro- 
cious were  celebrated  by  Te  Deums. 

During  the  Papacy  of  Innocent  III.  the  Romish  system 
was  at  its  highest  point  of  development.  He  is  the  most 
perfect  imbodiment  of  the  system.  And  yet  it  was  he 
who  first  fully  and  on  a  great  scale  incorporated  into  the 
fundamental  law  and  practice  of  the  church  the  principles 
of  fraud,  perjury,  robbery,  and  murder  in  the  extirpation 
of  heretics. 

His  crusades  against  the  Albigenses  cannot  be  thought 
of  to  this  day  without  a  thrill  of  horror.  Take  but  one 


346         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED.  . 

act  out  of  that  great  drama  of  horrors.  The  army  of 
brutal  and  fanatical  crusaders  whom  Innocent  had  stirred 
up  by  indulgences  and  promises  of  heaven  to  the  work  of 
blood  poured  like  a  torrent  into  the  province  of  Langue- 
doc,  on  the  Gulf  of  Lyons.  Here  and  in  the  adjacent 
province  of  Provence  were  the  chief  abodes  of  the  Albi- 
genses.  The  crusaders  assailed  Beziers,  a  city  containing 
about  fifteen  thousand  inhabitants  ;  but  as  from  the  castles 
and  villages  around  men,  women,  and  children  had  fled  to 
it,  from  forty  to  sixty  thousand  people  were  concentrated 
there.  As  soon  as  the  crusaders  took  the  place  their  vic- 
tims- crowded  to  the  churches  ;  and,  by  way  of  supplication 
for  mercy,  the  bells  were  tolled.  In  vain  —  the  churches 
were  deluged  with  blood.  In  one  alone  seven  thousand 
corpses  were  counted.  All  were  slaughtered  to  the  last 
living  creature,  the  houses  were  plundered,  and  the  city 
burned.  Not  a  building  remained — not  a  human  being 
was  left  alive.  All  this  and  other  similar  scenes  of  hor- 
ror Innocent  stirred  up  the  crusaders,  by  bulls,  and  briefs, 
and  promises  of  reward,  to  undertake  and  execute  ;  and  he 
sanctioned  and  applauded  them  when  done.  The  com- 
munity of  the  Albigenses  was  the  most  civilized,  intelli- 
gent, moral,  religious,  and  refined  in  Europe.  For  this 
reason  they  saw  the  abominations  of  the  Papacy  and  re- 
volted, adopting  the  true  doctrines  of  the  word  of  God. 
For  this  very  reason,  too,  Innocent  determined  on  their 
utter  extermination  ;  and,  as  the  slow  processes  of  trial 
were  too  tardy  in  their  operation,  he  determined  to  effect 
a  summary  extermination  without  trial  ;  and,  as  in  the 
case  of  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  the  death  of  a  few  "Papists 
was  not  to  be  thought  of  when  compared  with  ecclesias- 
tical utility.  By  such  measures  this  first  reformation  was 
totally  extinguished.  So  prodigious  was  the  slaughter, 
BO  freezing  the  terror,  that  the  church,  says  Shoberl, 


DISPENSATION   OF   GREGORY  Til.  347 

seemed  completely  to  have  gained  her  end.  The  worship 
of  the  reformed  Albigenses  ceased,  their  teachers  were 
slain,  and  only  a  few  scattered  exiles  remained.  But 
even  this  did  not  satisfy  Innocent.  These,  too,  must  be 
tracked  and  hunted  out.  For  this  purpose  he  established 
a  body  of  inquisitors  ;  and,  after  some  modifications,  this 
arrangement  resulted  in  the  infamous  and  permanent  tri- 
bunal of  the  Inquisition. 

The  principles  of  perjury,  treachery,  robbery,  and  mur- 
der thus  inaugurated  by  Innocent  and  sanctioned  by  the 
church,  both  by  theory  and  example,  descended  as  a  lega- 
cy to  the  popes  of  other  ages.  They  stimulated  the  hie- 
rarchy to  the  persecution  of  the  Lollards,  the  disciples  of 
Wickliffe  in  England,  for  about  a  century  and  a  half; 
to  the  persecution  and  death  of  Jerom  of  Prague,  John 
Huss,  and  their  followers  in  Bohemia  ;  to  the  long-contin- 
ued and  intensely  cruel  persecutions  of  the  "Waldenses  in 
northern  Italy  ;  and  finally  to  the  extended  leagues  framed 
to  slaughter  and  exterminate  the  Protestants  of  Europe 
after  the  reformation  of  Luther.  Well  does  inspiration 
depict  this  abandoned  and  profligate  body  as  a  harlot 
drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints.  Nor  need  we  won- 
der that  the  highest  indignation  of  God  is  manifested  to- 
wards this  unparalleled  series  of  crimes.  In  view  of  the 
blood  of  saints  found  in  her,  the  holy  inhabitants  of  heav- 
en are  called  on  to  praise  God  for  his  avenging  judg- 
ments on  her  ;  and  in  view  of  such  ineffable  crimes  they 
say  hallelujah,  whilst  her  smoke  goes  up  forever  and  ever. 


PAPAL  HATRED  OF  TEE  BIBLE. 

Another  striking  characteristic  of  this  age  is  found  in 
the  fact  that  the  hostility  of  the  Romish  corporation  to 


348         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIBACY  EXPOSED. 

the  Bible  was  first  fully  developed  and  that  prohibitions 
were  issued  against  its  use  in  the  vernacular  tongues  of 
Europe. 

The  feelings  of  hostility  to  the  popular  reading  of  the 
Bible  manifested  by  the  Romish  church  at  this  day  are 
well  known.  Can  any  thing  be  more  striking  than  the 
fact  that  the  great  Romish  saint,  Gregory  VII.,  took  the 
lead  in  the  enterprise  of  depriving  the  people  of  the  Bi- 
ble ?  In  January,  1080,  Yratislaus,  Duke  of  Bohemia, 
desiring  leave  to  have  divine  service  performed  in  the  com- 
mon tongue  of  the  people,  —  that  is,  the  Sclavonian, — 
Gregory  gave  him  the  following  reply  :  "  As  you  desire  us 
to  allow  divine  service  to  be  performed  among  you  in  the 
Sclavonian  tongue,  know  that  I  can  by  no  means  grant 
you  your  request,  it  being  manifest  to  all  who  will  but  re- 
flect that  it  has  pleased  the  Almighty  that  the  Scripture 
should  be  withheld  from  some,  and  not  understood  by  all, 
lest  it  should  fall  into  contempt  or  lead  the  unlearned  into 
error.  And  it  must  not  be  alleged  that  all  were  allowed 
in  the  primitive  times  to  read  the  Scriptures,  it  being  well 
known  that  in  those  early  times  the  church  connived  at 
many  things  which  the  holy  fathers  disapproved  and  cor- 
rected when  the  Christian  religion  was  firmly  established. 
We  therefore  cannot  grant,  but  absolutely  forbid,  by  the 
authority  of  Almighty  God  and  his  blessed  apostle  Peter, 
what  you  ask,  and  command  you  to  oppose  to  the  utmost 
of  your  power  all  who  require  it.''7 

Thus  did  this  pretended  vicar  of  Christ  repeal  the  com- 
mand of  the  great  Head  of  the  church,  "  Search  the  Scrip- 
tures," forbidding  them  even  to  be  read  in  public  divine 
worship  in  the  vernacular  tongue. 

And  yet  during  this  period  the  Albigenses  and  Wai- 
denses,  as  well  as  Wickliffe  and  the  Lollards  in  England, 
did  obtain  and  study  the  Bible  in  their  own  tongues.  The 


DISPENSATION   OP   GREGORY  VII.  349 

vigilance  of  Rome,  however,  early  sought  to  guard  against 
this  source  of  danger.  In  1229  the  council  of  Toulouse 
passed  a  decree  against  the  Waldenses  and  Albigenses. 
forbidding  them  to  have  the  Bible  translated  into  the  vul- 
gar tongue.  Similar  prohibitions  were  issued  in  England. 

The  aim  of  such  prohibitions  is  twofold  —  to  defend 
the  hierarchy  from  exposure  ;  and  also  to  keep  an  absolute 
monopoly  of  scriptural  truth  in  their  own  hands,  so  as  to 
subject  the  people  perfectly  to  their  power. 

Against  such  prohibitions  Wickliffe  said  to  the  pope, 
"  A  prohibition  of  reading  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  a 
vanity  of  secular  dominion,  would  seem  to  partake  too 
much  of  a  disposition  towards  the  BLASPHEMOUS  ADVANCE- 
MENT OP  ANTICHRIST."  He  then  condemns  the  hatred  of 
the  Romish  corporation  to  the  gospel,  their  claims  of  in- 
fallibility, their  crowding  to  Rome  to  obtain  dispensations 
and  to  "  PURCHASE  A  CONDEMNATION  OF  THE  SACRED 
SCRIPTURES  AS  HERETICAL." 

In  England  the  penalty  for  daring  to  read  the  Bible  in 
the  vernacular  tongue  was  TO  BE  BURNED  ALIVE.  The  in- 
quisitors and  ecclesiastics  carried  on  a  persecution  against 
the  disciples  of  Wickliffe,  for  a  century  and  a  half  on  this 
ground,  and  many  were  burned  alive.  In  1519  seven  per- 
sons were  burned  at  Coventry,  having  been  convicted  of 
the  crime  of  having  the  Scriptures  in  their  possession,  or 
portions  of  the  same.  Such  scenes  were  extensively  re- 
peated. All  of  the  Bibles  also  were  burned  that  could  be 
obtained  —  an  example  which  Romish  priests  in  this  land 
are  intent  to  follow. 

Thus  was  the  first  full  development  of  the  Papacy  in  the 
period  of  Gregory,  the  patron  saint  of  American  bishops, 
signalized  by  a  systematic  proscription  of  the  word  of 
God.  In  the  ancient  church  such  a  course  was  unknown. 
All  were  exhorted  to  read  and  study  the  word  of  God. 


350         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

But,  when  the  Romish  corporation  had  completed  their 
structure  of  forgery  and  fraud,  it  was  fit  and  reasonable 
that  they  should  regard  the  word  of  God  in  the  hands 
of  the  people  as  their  irreconcilable  and  unconquerable 
enemy,  even  as  they  do  to  this  day. 


PECULIAR  DOCTRINES  OF  POPERY. 

This  introduces  another  remarkable  characteristic  of 
this  period.  It  was  the  period  in  which  the  most  power- 
ful and  unscriptural  peculiarities  of  Popery  were  fully 
developed,  established  by  supreme  authority,  and  consoli- 
dated into  a  system.  It  has  been  often  stated  that  there 
were  such  peculiarities  ;  but  the  time  of  their  incorporation 
as  authorized  parts  of  the  system  has  not  been  distinctly 
considered.  Is  it  not,  then,  a  striking  fact  that  these  great 
peculiarities  are  not  venerable  for  antiquity,  but  are  the 
comparatively  late  products  of  the  fifth  class  of  popes  ?  It 
is  also  noteworthy  that  these  last-established  doctrines 
are  the  main  sinews  of  the  power  and  the  sources  of  the 
profit  of  the  Romish  corporation.  These  peculiarities  are 
the  highest  forms  of  the  Papal  supremacy — the  servitude  of 
the  bishops,  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  auricular  confession, 
penances,  purgatory,  the  seven  sacraments,  and  especially 
transubstantiation  and  masses. 

It  is  not  denied  of  course  that  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy 
existed  before  this  age.  But  it  was  fast  going  into  dis- 
use when  Gregory  arose ;  and  he  and  his  successors  en- 
forced it  as  never  before. 

Of  the  Papal  supremacy  and  the  subjugation  of  the 
bishops  enough  has  been  said.  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  add 
any  thing  on  the  subject  of  the  confessional,  whicli  is  a 
product  of  this  period. 


DISPENSATION  OP  GREGORY  VII.  351 

The  immense  utility  of  the  doctrine  concerning  purga- 
tory as  a  source  of  income  to  the  priests  has  also  been  set 
forth.  This  doctrine  also  was  established  during  this 
period. 

The  doctrine  of  seven  sacraments  was  also  first  fully 
developed  and  established  in  this  age.  The  doctrine  of 
transubstantiation  and  of  masses  which  has  ever  since 
been  a  prime  source  of  priestly  power  and  an  inexhausti- 
ble mine  of  wealth,  deserves  particular  notice  under  this 
head. 

The  profound  learning  and  the  unquestionable  candor 
of  Ranke  will  give  great  weight  to  the  following  tes- 
timony on  these  points  from  his  History  of  the  Refor- 
mation :  — 

"  The  question,  at  what  periods  and  under  what  circum- 
stances the  distinguishing  doctrines  and  practices  of  the 
Romish  church  were  settled  and  acquired  an  ascendency, 
merits  a  minute  and  elaborate  dissertation. 

"  It  is  sufficient  here  to  recall  to  the  mind  of  the  reader 
that  this  took  place  at  a  comparatively  late  period  and  pre- 
cisely in  the  century  of  the  great  hierarchical  struggles. 

"It  is  well  known  that  the  institutions  of  the  seven 
sacraments,  whose  circle  embraces  all  the  important  events 
of  the  life  of  man  and  brings  them  into  contact  with  the 
church,  is  ascribed  to  Peter  Lombard,  who  lived  in  the 
twelfth  century.  It  appears  upon  inquiry  that  the  notions 
regarding  the  most  important  of  them,  the  sacrament  of 
the  altar,  were  by  no  means  very  distinct  in  the  church 
itself  in  the  time  of  that  great  theologian.  It  is  true  that 
one  of  those  synods  which,  under  Gregory  VII.,  had  con- 
tributed so  much  to  the  establishment  of  the  hierarchy, 
had  added  great  weight  to  the  doctrine  of  the  real  pres- 
ence by  the  condemnation  of  Berengar  ;  but  Peter  Lom- 
bard as  yet  did  not  venture  to  decide  in  its  favor.  The 
word  transubstantiation  first  became  current  in  his  time ; 
nor  was  it  until  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century 
that  the  idea  and  the  word  received  the  sanction  of  the 


352         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

church.  This,  as  is  well  known,  was  first  given  by  the 
Lateran  confession  of  faith  in  the  year  1215  ;  and  it  was 
hot  till  later  that  the  objections  which  till  then  had  been 
constantly  suggested  by  a  deeper  view  of  religion  gradu- 
ally disappeared. 

"  It  is  obvious,  however,  of  what  infinite  importance 
this  doctrine  became  to  the  service  of  the  church,  which 
has  crystallized  (if  I  may  use  the  expression)  around  the 
mystery  it  involves.  The  ideas  of  the  mystical  and  sen- 
sible presence  of  Christ  in  the  church  were  thus  imbodied 
in  a  living  image  ;  the  adoration  of  the  host  was  intro- 
duced ;  festivals  in  honor  of  this  greatest  of  all  miracles, 
incessantly  repeated,  were  solemnized.  Intimately  con- 
nected with  this  is  the  great  importance  attached  to  the 
worship  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  the  mother  of  Christ,  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  middle  ages. 

"  The  prerogatives  of  the  priesthood  are  also  essen- 
tially connected  with  this  article  of  faith.  The  theory 
and  doctrine  of  the  priestly  character  were  developed  ; 
that  is,  of  the  power  communicated  to  the  priest  by  ordi- 
nation '  to  make  the  body  of  Christ '  (as  they  did  not 
scruple  to  say)  '  to  act  in  the  person  of  Christ.'  It  is  a 
product  of  the  thirteenth  century  ;  and  it  is  to  be  traced 
principally  to  Alexander  of  Hales  and  Thomas  Aquinas. 
This  doctrine  first  gave  to  the  separation  of  the  priest- 
hood from  the  laity,  which  had  indeed  other  and  deeper 
causes,  its  full  significancy.  People  began  to  see  in  the 
priest  the  mediator  between  God  and  man. 

"  This  separation,  regarded  as  a  positive  institution,  is 
also,  as  is  well  known,  an  offspring  of  the  same  epoch. 
In  the  thirteenth  century,  spite  of  all  opposition,  the 
celibacy  of  the  priesthood  became  an  inviolable  law.  At 
the  same  time  the  cup  began  to  be  withheld  from  the 
laity.  It  was  not  denied  that  the  efficacy  of  the  eucha- 
rist  in  both  kinds  was  more  complete  ;  but  it  was  said 
that  the  more  worthy  should  be  reserved  for  the  more 
worthy — for  those  by  whose  instrumentality  alone  it  was 
produced.  '  It  is  not  in  the  participation  of  the  faithful/ 
says  St.  Thomas,  '  that  the  perfection  of  the  sacrament 
lies,  but  solely  in  the  consecration  of  the  elements.7  And 
in  fact  the  church  appeared  far  less  designed  for  instruc- 


DISPENSATION  OF  GBEGOEY  VII.  353 

tion  or  for  the  preaching  of  the  gospel  than  for  the  show- 
ing forth  of  the  great  mystery  ;  and  the  priesthood  is, 
through  the  sacrament,  the  sole  depositary  of  the  power 
to  do  this.  It  is  through  the  priest  that  sanctification  is 
imparted  to  the  multitude. 

"  This  very  separation  of  the  priesthood  from  the  laity 
gave  its  members  boundless  influence  over  all  other  classes 
of  the  community. 

"  It  is  a  necessary  part  of  the  theory  of  the  sacerdotal 
character  above  alluded  to  that  the  priest  has  the  exclu- 
sive power  of  removing  the  obstacles  which  stand  in  the 
way  of  a  participation  in  the  mysterious  grace  of  God  : 
in  this  not  even  a  saint  had  power  to  supersede  him. 
But  the  absolution  which  he  is  authorized  to  grant  is 
charged  with  certain  conditions,  the  most  imperative  of 
which  is  confession.  In  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century  it  was  peremptorily  enjoined  on  every  believer 
as  a  duty  to  confess  all  his  sins,  at  least  once  in  a  year, 
to  some  particular  priest. 

"It  requires  no  elaborate  argument  to  prove  what 
an  all-pervading  influence  auricular  confession  and  the 
official  supervision  and  guidance  of  consciences  must  give 
to  the  clergy.  With  this  was  connected  a  complete,  or- 
ganized system  of  penances. 

"  Above  all,  a  character  and  position  almost  divine 
was  thus  conferred  on  the  high  priest,  the  Pope  of  Rome  ; 
of  whom  it  was  assumed  that  he  occupied  the  place  of 
Christ  in  the  mystical  body  of  the  church,  which  em- 
braced heaven  and  earth,  the  dead  and  the  living.  This 
conception  of  the  functions  and  attributes  of  the  pope 
was  first  filled  out  and  perfected  in  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  Then,  too,  was  the  doctrine  of  the 
treasures  of  the  church,  on  which  the  system  of  indul- 
gences rests,  first  promulgated.  Innocent  III.  did  not 
scruple  to  declare  that  what  he  did  God  did  through 
him.  Glossators  added  that  the  pope  possessed  the  un- 
controlled will  of  God  ;  that  his  sentence  superseded  all 
reasons.  With  perverse  and  extravagant  dialectics,  they 
propounded  the  question,  whether  it  were  possible  to  ap- 
peal from  the  pope  to  God,  and  answered  it  in  the  nega- 
tive ;  seeing  that  God  had  the  same  tribunal  as  the 
30* 


354        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACT  EXPOSED. 

pope,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  appeal  from  any 
being   to  himself. 

"  It  is  clear  that  the  Papacy  must  have  already  gained 
the  victory  over  the  empire  —  that  it  could  no  longer 
have  any  thing  to  fear  either  from  master  or  rival' — 
before  opinions  and  doctrines  of  this  kind  could  be  en- 
tertained or  avowed.  In  the  age  of  struggles  and  con- 
quests, the  theory  of  the  hierarchy  gained  ground  step 
by  step  with  the  fact  of  material  power.  Never  were 
theory  and  practice  more  intimately  connected. 

"Nor  was  it  to  be  believed  that  any  interruption  or 
pause  in  this  course  of  things  took  place  in  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  denial  of  the  right  of  the  clergy  to  with- 
hold the  cup  was  first  declared  to  be  heresy  at  the  coun- 
cil of  Constance.  Eugenius  IV.  first  formally  accepted 
the  doctrine  of  the  seven  sacraments.  The  extraordinary 
school  interpretation  of  the  miraculous  conception  was^ 
first  approved  by  the  councils,  favored  by  the  popes,  and 
accepted  by  the  universities  in  this  age. 

"  It  might  appear  that  the  worldly  dispositions  of  the 
popes  of  those  times,  whose  main  object  it  was  to  enjoy 
life,  to  promote  their  dependants,  and  to  enlarge  their 
secular  dominions,  would  have  prejudiced  their  spiritual 
pretensions..  But,  on  the  contrary,  these  were  as  vast 
and  arrogant  as  ever.  The  only  effect  of  the  respect  in- 
spired by  the  councils  was,  that  the  popes  forbade  any 
one  to  appeal  to  a  council  under  pain  of  damnation. 
With  what  ardor  do  the  curialist  writers  labor  to  demon- 
strate the  infallibility  of  the  pope  !  John  of  Torquema- 
da  is  unwearied  in  heaping  together  analogies  from  Scrip- 
ture, maxims  of  the  fathers,  and  passages  out  of  the  false 
decretals  for  this  end.  He  goes  so  far  as  to  maintain  that, 
were  there  not  a  head  of  the  church  who  could  decide  all 
controversies  and  remove  all  doubts,  it  might  be  possible 
to  doubt  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  themselves,  which  de- 
rived their  authority  only  from  the  church  ;  which,  again, 
could  not  be  conceived  as  existing  without  the  pope.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  well-known 
Dominican,  Thomas  of  Gaeta,  did  not  hesitate  to  declare 
the  church  a  born  slave,  who  could  have  no  other  remedy 
against  a  bad  pope  than  to  pray  for  him  without  ceasing." 


DISPENSATION  OF  GREGORY  VII.  355 


PECUNIARY  EXTORTIONS. 

In  this  age  also  -was  developed  a  system  of  pecuniary 
extortions  that  it  is  hard  either  to  imagine  or  believe 
until  we  study  the  most  authentic  records  of  the  age. 

To  understand  its  extent,  we  must  divide  these  exac- 
tions into  two  classes  —  those  needed  to  sustain  the  ex- 
travagance of  the  Roman  court  and  to  execute  their  vast 
plans  for  governing  the  world  ;  and  those  that  were  de- 
signed to  support  and  enrich  the  secular  clergy  and  the 
various  monastic  orders  in  each  particular  nation. 

Gregory's  demand  of  tribute  in  the  form  of  Peter's 
pence  comes  into  the  first  class  ;  and  in  this  way  im- 
mense sums  were  raised.  The  pope  also  managed  to  de- 
rive an  immense  income  from  a  trade  in  bishoprics  and 
livings.  A  small  degree  of  this  traffic  aroused  the  tender 
conscience  of  Gregory  to  depose  Henry ;  but  by  the  popes 
it  was  practised  without  modesty  or  limitation.  They 
contrived  also  to  obtain  immense  profits  for  their  favor- 
ites and  tools  at  Rome  by  setting  up  claims  to  the  right 
to  interfere,  not  only  in  the  election  of  bishops,  but  also 
in  the  conferment  of  benefices  in  the  various  dioceses  of 
all  Europe.  The  power  of  the  patronage  of  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  can  give  but  a  faint  idea  of  the 
power  of  patronage  thus  wielded  by  the  pope.  Take 
one  single  example  from  the  history  of  England,  our 
motherland.  In  the  thirteenth  century,  Gregory  IX., 
the  great  systematizer  of  the  canon  law,  filled  all  the 
best  benefices  in  England  with  his  Italian  priests.  It 
was  alleged,  as  Hallam  states,  in  a  remonstrance  in  the 
name  of  the  whole  nation,  that  they  drew  from  England, 
in  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  sixty  or  seventy 
thousand  marks  a  year  —  a  sum  far  exceeding  the  royal 


356         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

revenues.  A  similar  state  of  things  existed. in  France 
and  Germany.  These  Italian  favorites  were  allowed  to 
employ  curates,  and,  as  non-residents,  to  live  in  luxury 
and  ease.  Some  of  them  were  thus  enabled  to  hold  from 
the  pope  fifty  or  sixty  preferments. 

The  popes  also  at  length  imposed  a  tax  on  the  national 
clergy  ;  and  then  the  rapacity  of  Papal  exactions  was  with- 
out bounds.  Hallam  states  that  "  the  usurers  of  Cahora 
and  Lombardy  residing  in  London  took  up  the  trade  of 
agency  for  the  pope  ;  and  in  a  few  years  he  is  said  through 
them,  partly  by  levies  of  money,  partly  by  the  revenues 
of  benefices,  to  have  plundered  the  kingdom  of  nine  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  marks  —  a  sum  equivalent  to  not 
less  than  fifteen  millions  sterling  at  present." 

Immense  amounts  were  also  extorted  from  all  newly- 
appointed  bishops  for  the  conferment  of  the  pallium,  or 
bishop's  cloak.  The  cost  of  a  pallium  for  Mainz  in  Ger- 
many was  twenty  thousand  gulden,  assessed  on  the  sev- 
eral parts  of  the  see.  Three  hundred  thousand  gulden, 
it  was  calculated,  were  thus  yearly  absorbed  from  Ger- 
many by  Rome. 

In  view  of  such  exactions  of  all  kinds,  Edward  III.  ad- 
dressed a  strong  remonstrance  to  Clement  VI.,  declaring 
that  they  were  intolerable  and  must  be  remedied.  But  it 
was  of  no  avail.  Shoberl  states  that  in  1376  the  commons 
in  Parliament  presented  to  the  king  an  urgent  remon- 
strance, affirming,  what  seems  almost  incredible,  that  "  the 
taxes  paid  to  the  pope  yearly  amounted  to  five  times  as 
much  as  the  taxes  paid  to  the  king." 

On  this  point  F.  Shoberl  says,  — 

"  The  rapacity  of  the  'popes,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
claimed  the  right  of  nominating  to  all  benefices  and 
made  the  exercise  of  it  a  source  of  prodigious  wealth, 
had  for  many  years  excited  violent  murmurs,  not  in  Eng- 
land only,  but  throughout  all  Christendom.  By  such 


DISPENSATION  OF  GREGORY  VII.  357 

means  Pope  John  XXII.  was  enabled  to  leave  at  his 
death  twenty-two  millions  of  florins  in  his  coffers.  '  This 
prodigious  treasure/  says  Fleury,  'was  amassed  by  the 
industry  of  his  holiness,  who  reserved  for  himself  the 
reversion  of  the  benefices  of  all  the  collegiate  churches 
in  Christendom,  alleging  that  he  did  so  to  prevent 
simony.  Moreover  by  virtue  of  this  reservation  he  never 
directly  confirmed  the  election  of  any  prelate,  but  pro- 
moted a  bishop  to  an  archbishopric,  and  put  an  inferior 
bishop  in  his  place  :  hence  it  frequently  happened  that 
the  vacancy  of  an  archbishopric  or  a  patriarchate  occa- 
sioned six  promotions  or  more,  producing  large  sums  of 
money  to  the  apostolic  chamber.' 

"  When  Innocent  VI.  sent  Philip  de  Cabassole  to  Ger- 
many to  levy  the  tenth  of  all  the  ecclesiastical  revenues, 
the  prelates  of  that  country  loudly  complained  of  this  new 
exaction.  '  The  Romans,'  said  one  of  them,  exhorting  his 
brethren  to  oppose  it, '  have  always  looked  upon  Germany 
as  a  gold  mine,  and  invented  divers  means  of  exhausting 
it.  What  doth  the  pope  give  to  this  kingdom  but  letters 
and  words  ?  Let  him  dispose  of  all  benefices  as  far  as 
the  collation  goes  ;  but  let  him  leave  the  revenues  to 
those  who  perform  the  duties.  We  send  money  enough  to 
Italy  for  divers  merchandises,  and  to  Avignon,  [where  the 
Papal  court  was  then  residing,]  for  our  sons  who  are 
studying  there  or  soliciting,  we  will  not  say  buying,  bene- 
fices. All  of  you  well  know  that  large  sums  of  money  are 
every  year  carried  from  Germany  to  the  court  of  the  pope 
for  the  confirmation  of  prelates,  for  the  grant  of  benefices, 
for  the  prosecution  of  suits  and  appeals  to  tJie  holy  see,  for 
dispensations,  absolutions,  indulgences,  privileges,  and  other  fa- 
vors. In  all  times  the  archbishops  confirmed  the  elec- 
tions of  the  bishops,  their  suffragans.  It  was  Pope  John 
XXII.  who  in  our  time  wrested  this  right  from  them'  by 
violence.  And  now  the  pope  is  again  demanding  from 
the  clergy  a  new  and  unheard-of  subsidy,  threatening  with 
censures  such  as  will  not  give  it  or  as  shall  oppose  it. 
Stop  the  beginning  of  the  evil,  and  suffer  not  this  dis- 
graceful servitude  to  be  established.' " 

It  appears  from  this  statement  that  Papal  ingenuity 


358        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

exhausted  itself  in  devising  various  modes  of  obtaining 
money.  Who  does  not  understand  the  immense  trade 
in  indulgences  carried  on  by  them  and  their  agents  in 
all  Europe  ? 

So,  too,  dispensations  from  impediments  to  marriage 
were  a  constant  source  of  revenue.  To  this  must  be 
added  pilgrimages,  jubilees,  and  other  ingenious  modes 
of  deluding  the  people  and  filling  the  pope's  coffers  with 
their  hard-earned  wages. 

Besides  all  this,  immense  sums  were  obtained  by  the 
mendicant  friars  —  that  all-pervading  Papal  army.  From 
Germany,  for  example,  shortly  before  the  reformation, 
they  collected,  according  to  Kanke,  a  yearly  revenue  of 
one  million  gulden. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  also  that  the  secular  clergy 
as  well  as  the  monasteries  drew  largely  on  the  resources 
of  the  people.  The  monasteries  and  regular  clergy  held 
about  one  half  of  the  land  of  Europe,  and  besides,  by  the 
various  kinds  of  spiritual  traffic  already  described,  ab- 
sorbed the  earnings  of  the  people. 

I  do  not  affirm  that  by  the  locusts  —  who,  under  their 
leader  Apollyon,  issued  from  the  smoke  of  the  bottomless 
pit  to  prey  upon  men  and  to  torment  them  —  God  meant  to 
describe  the  Romish  corporation,  and  monks,  and  clergy, 
under  their  leader  the  pope.  But,  however  this  may  be, 
one  thing  is  plain  —  no  symbol  can  better  describe  them 
and  their  deeds.  One  long,  loud,  universal  cry  went  up 
throughout  Europe,  alike  from  kings,  nobles,  and  people, 
of  the  rapacious  and  plundering  spirit  of  Rome  and  her 
myrmidons.  None  but  those  who  experienced  it  can  ever 
conceive  how  great  was  the  plague.  The  language  of  the 
times  labors  in  vain  to  express  it.  Even  imagination 
fails  and  is  powerless. 

Such  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable  aspects  of  this 


DISPENSATION  OF   GREGORY   VII.  i       859 

period  —  a  period  well  deserving  the  study  of  Americans. 
It  was  the  period  created  by  the  principles  of  Gregory 
VII.,  the  very  pontiff  whom  the  Romish  bishops  of  this 
country  have  chosen  as  the  patron  saint  of  America. 


PAPAL  MORALITY. 

As  the  main  claim  of  the  Papal  corporation  is,  that  it 
is  the  only  true  and  holy  church,  and  the  only  author  of 
holiness,  we  ought  to  find  in  this  age  of  its  supremacy 
abundant  evidence  of  the  truth  of  such  claims.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  we  shall  seek  for  them  in  vain.  On 
the  other  hand,  in  this  age  a  degree  of  moral  corruption 
•was  developed  in  the  Roman  court  and  in  the  community 
the  depths  of  which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  fathom  and 
the  atrocity  of  which  is  beyond  description. 

The  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  as  has  been  shown,  in  this  pe- 
riod had  thoroughly  debauched  the  whole  European  world. 
The  selfish,  treacherous,  and  rapacious  policy  of  the  Papal 
court  at  length  utterly  corrupted  the  policy  of  kings. 
Machiavelli,  in  his  Prince,  did  but  apply  to  the  state  the 
Papal  principles  as  to  ecclesiastical  expediency.  Kings, 
following  Papal  maxims,  justified  and  employed  perjury, 
perfidy,  poisoning,  and  secret  murder  for  state  ends.  Of 
all  these  things  the  court  of  Rome  had  furnished  abundant 
examples.  It  seemed  to  be  God's  purpose  to  develop  the 
true  tendency  of  the  maxims  of  the  Papal  court  in  the 
atrocious  life  and  death  of  Alexander  YI.  Sismondi  de- 
clares that  by  reason  of  such  extreme  corruption  "  the  six- 
teenth century  was  marked  by  an  entire  abandonment  of 
all  morals,  honor,  and  virtue."  Steinmetz,  in  his  history 
of  the  Jesuits,  says,  "  In  Italy,  amidst  its  splendor  of  arts 
and  scieu.ce  and  its  talk  of  religion,  morals  are  so  cor- 


360         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

rupted  that  public  shame  is  utterly  lost ;  the  vices  of 
individuals  even  the  most  remarkable  for  their  riches, 
rank,  and  position  exhibit  a  front  of  brass  in  the  boastful 
impudence  of  guilt.  Nothing  is  concealed  —  nothing  dis- 
graces." "  It  seems  as  if  men  look  on  crime  as  their 
meals  —  with  an  appetite  or  not,  as  the  case  may  be  ;  but 
all  is  natural ;  children  grow  up  like  their  parents  —  born 
in  the  midst  of  wickedness,  how  can  they  be  otherwise  ?  " 
Of  the  religion  producing  such  results  he  says,  "  It  was 
not  Christianity,  but  a  timeserving,  political,  sensual,  las- 
civious, avaricious  system  formed  by  the  passions  and  in- 
tellect of  men." 

In  a  review  of  the  life  and  works  of  Machiavelli,  Ma- 
caulay  thus  speaks  of  his  most  famous  work  :  — 

"  It  is  indeed  scarcely  possible  for  any  person  not  well 
acquainted  with  the  history  and  literature  of  Italy  to  read 
without  horror  and  amazement  the  celebrated  treatise 
which  has  brought  so  much  obloquy  on  the  name  of 
Machiavelli.  Such  a  display  of  wickedness,  —  naked,  yet 
not  ashamed,  —  such  cool,  judicious,  scientific  atrocity, 
seem  rather  to  belong  to  a  fiend  than  to  the  most  de- 
praved of  men.  Principles  which  the  most  hardened  ruf- 
fian would  scarcely  hint  to  his  most  trusted  accomplice,  or 
avow,  without  the  disguise  of  some  palliating  sophism,  even 
to  his  own  mind,  are  professed  without  the  slightest  cir- 
cumlocution, and  assumed  as  the  fundamental  axioms  of 
all  political  science." 

After  trying  and  rejecting  various  modes  of  accounting 
for  such  a  moral  phenomenon,  he  comes  to  the  conclusion 
that  Machiavelli  was  a  kind,  well-meaning  man,  but  that 
the  morals  of  Italy  had  been  so  debased  by  the  Papacy  that 
neither  he  nor  any  one  around  him  had  any  idea  that 
there  was  any  thing  wrong  or  immoral  in  his  book.  He 
says,  — 


DISPENSATION  OP  GREGOPvY  VII.  361 

"  There  is  no  reason  whatever  to  think  that  those 
amongst  whom  he  lived  saw  any  thing  shocking  or  in- 
congruous in  his  writings.  Abundant  proofs  remain  of 
the  high  estimation  in  which  both  his  works  and  his  per- 
son were  held  by  the  most  respectable  among  his  contem- 
poraries. Clement  VII.  patronized  the  publication  of 
those  very  books  which  the  council  of  Trent  in  the  fol- 
lowing generation  pronounced  unfit  for  the  perusal  of 
Christians.  Some  members  of  the  democratical  party 
censured  the  secretary  for  dedicating  the  Prince  to  a  pa- 
tron who  bore  the  unpopular  name  of  Medici ;  but  to  those 
immoral  doctrines  which  have  since  called  forth  such  se- 
vere reprehensions  no  exception  appears  to  have  been 
taken.  The  cry  against  them  was  first  raised  beyond  the 
Alps,  and  seems  to  have  been  heard  with  amazement  in 
Italy.  The  earliest  assailant,  as  far  as  we  are  aware,  was 
a  countryman  of  our  own,  Cardinal  Pole.  The  author  of 
the  Anti-Machiavelli  was  a  French  Protestant." 

This  is  what  the  mother  of  harlots  and  of  abominations 
effected  for  Italy  and  Rome.  Let  us  now  see  what  she 
did  for  France  and  Avignon  during  the  seventy  years'  res- 
idence of  the  Papacy  there  after  Boniface  VIII.  Wick- 
liffe  was  sent  on  a  mission  to  the  Papal  court  to  secure  the 
correction  of  abuses  in  England.  The  mission  was  vain  ; 
but  not  so  his  opportunities  of  observation.  It  affected 
him  as  Rome  at  a  later  day  did  Luther.  Shoberl  says,  — 

"  If  no  immediate  result  was  obtained  by  this  mission, 
still  the  opportunities  which  it  afforded  Wickliffe  for  ob- 
servation convinced  him  that  the  system  of  the  Papal 
court  and  its  doctrines  were  equally  corrupt.  These  con- 
victions he  did  not  fail  to  express  on  his  return  in  the 
boldest  manner.  He  insisted  that  the  Scriptures  contain 
all  truths  necessary  to  salvation,  and  that  in  them  only  is 
to  be  found  the  perfect  rule  of  Christian  practice ;  he  de- 
nied the  authority  of  the  pope  in  temporal  matters  ;  pro- 
claimed that  he  was  the  man  of  sin,  the  son  of  perdition, 
described  by  St.  Paul,  '  Sitting  as  God  in  the  temple  of 
31 


862        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

God,  showing  himself  that  he  is  God,'  and  denounced  him 
as  Antichrist.  These  doctrines  Wickliffe  openly  taught 
and  maintained  ;  and  well  he  might,  for  at  this  period  the 
popes  themselves,  their  court,  and  the  clergy  in  general, 
pampered  by  the  wealth  which  their  rapacious  arts  were 
incessantly  supplying,  exhibited  a  corruption  of  morals,  a 
depravity,  a  licentiousness  scarcely  to  be  conceived,  much 
less  described.  In  assuming  the  sacerdotal  office  they 
seemed  to  have  vowed  utterly  to  discard  all  that  man- 
•kind  had  been  accustomed  to  call  virtue.  It  is  impossi- 
ble to  read  without  profound  horror  the  description  given 
by  Petrarch,  himself  a  churchman,  of  the  dissoluteness  of 
the  Papal  court  in  the  fourteenth  century  while  resident 
at  Avignon  ;  and  all  contemporary  accounts  prove  that  he 
is  not  chargeable  with  having  recurred  in  his  picture  to 
the  poet's  license.  '  You  imagine/  he  writes  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend,  '  that  the  city  of  Avignon  is  the  same  now  that 
it  was  when  you  resided  in  it.  No  ;  it  is  very  different. 
It  was  then,  it  is  true,  the  worst  and  vilest  place  on  earth  ; 
now  it  is  become  a  terrestrial  hell,  an  abode  of  fiends  and 
devils,  a  receptacle  of  all  that  is  most  wicked  and  abom- 
inable. What  I  tell  you  is  not  from  hearsay,  but  from  my 
own  knowledge  and  experience.  In  this  city  there  is  no 
piety,  no  reverence  or  fear  of  God,  no  faith  or  charity ; 
nothing  that  is  holy,  just,  equitable,  or  humane.  Why 
should  I  speak  of  truth,  where  not  only  the  houses,  palaces, 
courts,  churches,  and  the  thrones  of  popes  and  cardinals, 
but  the  very  earth  and  air  seem  to  teem  with  lies  ?  A  fu- 
ture state,  heaven,  hell,  and  judgment  are  openly  turned 
into  ridicule  as  childish  fables.  Good  men  have  of  late 
been  treated  with  so  much  scorn  and  contempt  that  there 
is  not  one  left  among  them  to  be  an  object  of  laughter.' 
In  the  same  letter  he  declares  that  the  more  profligate  a 
man  was,  the  more  certain  he  was  of  preferment  in  the 
church. 

"  It  is  no  wonder  that,  amidst  so  deep  a  corruption  of 
manners  in  those  whose  lives  should  be  patterns  to  the 
other  classes  of  society,  the  vices  of  the  clergy  were 
standing  subjects  of  satire  in  every  country  of  Europe, 
and  especially  England,  in  the  fourteenth  century.  The 
poems  of  Chaucer  abound  in  passages  of  this  kind ;  and 


DISPENSATION  OP   GREGORY  VII.  363 

the  Ploughman's  Tale  is  one  continued  satire  upon  the 
clergy  for  their  gross  ignorance,  cruelty,  covetousuess, 
simony,  vanity,  pride,  ambition,  drunkenness,  gluttony, 
lechery,  and  other  vices.  This  profligacy  gave  rise  to  an 
opinion,  which  universally  prevailed,  that  the  coming  of 
Antichrist  was  at  hand.  We  are  told  indeed  that,  in  1364, 
Dr.  Nicholas  Orem,  a  celebrated  preacher,  in  a  sermon  be- 
fore the  pope  and  cardinals,  undertook  to  demonstrate  this 
proposition  from  the  enormous  corruption  and  the  intol- 
erable abuses  of  the  church.  Even  Petrarch,  though  not 
scrupulous  in  regard  to  doctrines  and  ceremonies,  was  so 
shocked  at  the  gross  depravity  of  the  Papal  court  that  he 
applied  that  passage  in  the  book  of  Revelation  concern- 
ing Babylon,  the  mother  of  harlots  and  of  all  abomina- 
tions, to  the  city  of  Avignon,  where,  as  it  has  been 
observed,  the  pope  then  resided." 

It  is  not  until  we  understand  such  a  state  of  shameless 
moral  debasement  that  we  can  regard  as  credible  what  is 
nevertheless  a  fact,  that,  at  the  close  of  the  council  of  Ly- 
ons, Cardinal  Hugo  dared  to  utter  to  the  citizens,  as  a 
brazen  joke,  the  following  address,  descriptive  of  a  fact : 
"  My  friends,  we  have  conferred  on  this  place  a  great  ben- 
efit. When  we  came  here  there  was  a  number  of  houses 
of  ill  fame  ;  but  now  there  is  but  one  ;  but  that  one  ex- 
tends from  the  eastern  to  the  western  gate  of  the  city." 

The  infidelity  that  reigned  at  Avignon  no  less  devel- 
oped itself  at  Rome.  On  this  subject  Macaulay  says, — 

"  During  the  generation  which  preceded  the  reforma- 
tion that  court  had  been  a  scandal  to  the  Christian  name. 
Its  annals  are  black  with  treason,  murder,  and  incest. 
Even  its  more  respectable  members  were  utterly  unfit  to 
be  ministers  of  religion.  They  were  men  like  Leo '  X. ; 
men  who,  with  the  Latinity  of  the  Augustan  age,  had  ac- 
quired its  atheistical  and  scoffing  spirit.  They  regarded 
these  Christian  mysteries  of-  which  they  were  stewards 
just  as  the  Augur  Cicero  and  the  Pontifex  Maximus  Cae- 
sar regarded  the  Sibylline  books  and  the  pecking  of  the 


364         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

sacred  chicken?.  Among  themselves  they  spoke  of  the 
incarnation,  the  eucharist,  and  the  Trinity  in  the  same 
tone  in  which  Cotta  and  Yelleius  talked  of  the  oracle 
of  Delphi  or  of  the  voice  of  Faunus  in  the  mountains. 
Their  years  glided  by  in  a  soft  dream  of  sensual  and  intel- 
lectual voluptuousness.  Choice  cookery,  delicious  wines, 
lovely  women,  hounds,  falcons,  horses,  newly-discovered 
manuscripts  of  the  classics,  sonnets  and  burlesque  ro- 
mances in  the  sweetest  Tuscan,  just  as  licentious  as  a 
fine  sense  of  the  graceful  would  permit ;  plates  from  the 
hand  of  a  Benvenuto  ;  designs  for  palaces  by  Michael  An- 
gelo  ;  frescoes  by  Raphael ;  busts,  mosaics,  and  gems  just 
dug  up  from  among  the  ruins  of  ancient  temples  and  vil- 
las, —  these  things  were  the  delight  and  even  the  serious 
business  of  their  lives." 

Such  was  the  ineffable  malignity  of  the  influence  of  the 
Roman  corporation,  falsely  called  a  church,  when  in  its 
full  development  and  in  its  highest  glory.  How,  then, 
must  it  have  appeared  in  the  sight  of  a  pure  and  holy 
God  1  We  know  how ;  for  prophecy  has  informed  us 
what  he  will  declare  concerning  it  when  the  hour  of  his 
judgment  is  fully  come.  Then  will  he  set  it  forth  as  being 
a  habitation  of  devils,  the  hold  of  every  foul  spirit,  and  a 
cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful  bird  ;  a  great  sorceress 
and  harlot,  making  all  nations  drunk  with  the  wine  of  the 
wrath  of  her  fornication,  and  herself  drunk  with  the  blood 
of  the  saints. 


PAET    IY. 


THE  JUDGMENT  OF   GOD  AND  THE  BUBNING 
OF  BABYLON. 


CHAPTER    I. 

BABYLON  ON  FIRE. 

ON  the  morning  of  the  10th  day  of  December,  1520, 
the  inhabitants  of  Wittemberg,  in  Germany,  were  aroused 
and  filled  with  amazement  by  the  breaking  out  of  a  great 
conflagration  at  the  east  gate  of  the  city.  The  intelli- 
gence of  this  conflagration  at  once  spread  as  on  the  wings 
of  the  wind,  and  wherever  it  came  it  no  less  aroused  and 
amazed  the  world.  It  was  but  the  emblem  of  a  greater 
conflagration  which  had  then  broken  out,  and  which  has 
continued  to  burn  to  this  day,  and  which  is  destined  still 
to  burn  with  fiercer  flames  until  Babylon  the  great  is  ut- 
terly burned  with  fire  by  the  avenging  judgment  of  her 
almighty  Judge.  From  that  day  to  this  intense  efforts 
have  been  made  to  extinguish  the  mighty  conflagration. 
The  great  fire  company  of  the  Jesuits  was  formed  for  this 
especial  end,  and  have  labored  manfully,  but  in  vain.  It 
31  *  (365) 


366         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

still  burns,  and  will  burn  till  the  avenging  judgment  of 
God  is  completed. 

Not  least  of  all  does  the  conflagration  rage  in  this  land. 
The  very  fundamental  principles  of  our  civil  and  religious 
institutions  are  devouring  fire  to  the  great  Babylon  ;  for 
which  reason  earnest  efforts  are  now  made  to  quench  their 
fiery  energy.  But  all  shall  be  in  vain. 

But  let  us  draw  near  and  consider  the  burning  in  Wit- 
temberg.  Of  it  we  find  the  following  authentic  account : 
"This  10th  day  of  December,  in  the  year  1520,  at  the 
ninth  hour  of  the  day,  were  burned  at  Wittemberg,  at 
the  east  gate,  near  the  Holy  Cross,  ALL  THE  POPE'S  BOOKS, 
the  Decree,  the  Decretgls,  the  Extravagante  of  Clement  VI., 
Leo  X.'s  last  bull,  the  JJngelic  Sum,  Eck's  Chrysoprasus, 
and  some  other  works  of  Eck's  and  Emser's.  Is  not  this 
new?" 

What  was  this  last  bull  of  Leo  X.  ?  It  was  the  bull  of 
excommunication  of  one  Martin  Luther.  What  had  he 
done  ?  He  had  in  the  year  1517  seriously  interfered  with 
the  trading  operations  of  the  great  corporation  in  the  sale 
of  indulgences  for  the  professed  purpose  of  building  St. 
Peter's  Church  at  Rome.  When  called  to  account,  he  had 
refused  to  retract  what  he  had  said.  When  called  on  to 
dispute,  he  had  refused  to  be  beaten  in  an  argument. 
When  the  authority  of  the  pope  was  quoted  against  him, 
he  had  dared  to  call  in  question  that  authority,  as  of  mod- 
ern origin.  When  the  forged  decretals  were  quoted  against 
him,  though  at  first  silenced,  not  knowing  them  to  be  forged) 
he  at  last  discovered  the  imposture,  and  dared  to  denounce 
the  pope  and  his  forgeries.  When  pressed  by  the  authority 
of  councils,  he  dared  to  declare  that  councils  were  not 
infallible,  and  had  erred,  and  that  the  Bible  alone  was  in- 
fallible. He  had  dared,  moreover,  to  appeal  to  the  Ger- 
man princes  to  arouse  themselves  and  resist  the  usurpa- 


BABYLON    OX   FIRE.  367 

tions  and  aggressions  of  the  pope.  He  had  dared  to  assail 
the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  and  the  pope's  temporal  as  well 
as  his  spiritual  monarchy,  and  to  demand  that  all  things 
should  be  reduced  to  order  according  to  the  word  of  God 
and  the  testimony  of  history. 

This,  in  brief,  was  what  Martin  Luther  had  done ;  and 
in  truth  it  would  seem  to  have  been  enough,  if  there  were 
any  virtue  in  bulls,  to  call  for  one  of  the  most  roaring 
kind  and  the  most  terrific  energy.  Accordingly  it  came  ; 
and  we  have  seen  its  reception  by  Luther,  and  its  doom. 

But  the  burning  of  the  bull  was  not  the  most  significant 
part  of  the  proceedings.  "With  it  were  burned  the  forged 
decretals  and  the  canon  law.  Astonishing  audacity !  So, 
then,  the  very  foundations  of  Babylon  the  great  are  utterly 
burned  with  fire. 

"Who,  then,  had  the  courage,  at  that  age  and  in  those 
circumstances,  to  do  that  deed  ?  I  answer,  It  was  not  by 
the  courage  of  man  that  it  was  done,  but  by  the  courage 
of  God.  Nor  did  it  express  human  passion.  It  was  but 
an  outward  manifestation  of  the  righteous  judgment  of 
the  invisible  yet  present  and  avenging  God. 

"When  Luther  began,  he  had  not  the  remotest  conception 
of  the  issue  to  which  he  should  come.  He  believed  in  his 
heart  that  the  pope  had,  by  the  will  of  God,  supreme  au- 
thority in  the  church.  He  trembled,  step  by  step,  as  he 
encountered  those  deeprooted  prejudices  which  had  en- 
slaved him  as  well  as  the  rest  of  Europe.  But  God  would 
not  let  him  rest.  His  word  was  in  him  like  a  fire  in  his 
bones  as  truth  after  truth  was  revealed  to  him ;  and  he 
was  weary  with  forbearing  and  could  not  stay.  God, 
too,  who  fits  his  instruments  for  his  work,  had  fitted  him 
to  encounter  the  men  and  the  system  with  whom  he  had 
to  deal.  They  were  impudent,  and  stiffnecked,  and  hard- 
hearted, and  rebellious ;  but  God  made  his  face  strong 


368        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

against  their  faces  and  his  forehead  strong  against  their 
foreheads.  As  an  adamant,  harder  than  a  flint,  he  made 
his  forehead  against  their  impudence  and  audacity. 

"When  our  souls  have  been  filled  with  indignation,  in 
view  of  the  inconceivable  abominations  and  atrocious 
slaughters  of  the  Papacy,  it  is  a  joy  to  find  that  God  has 
at  length  given  to  one  man  energy  and  courage,  by  words 
and  by  acts,  to  express  the  indignation  of  God.  A  brief 
account  of  the  conflagration  at  Wittemberg  has  been 
given  in  the  words  of  Luther  himself.  Let  us  now  draw 
near  and  take  a  more  full  view  of  the  scene  as  depicted 
by  D'Aubigne: — 

"  On  the  10th  of  December  a  placard  was  posted  on 
the  walls  of  the  University  of  Wittemberg,  inviting  the 
professors  and  students  to  be  present  at  nine  o'clock  in  the 
morning  at  the  eastern  gate,  near  the  Holy  Cross.  A 
great  number  of  doctors  and  students  assembled  ;  and  Lu- 
ther, walking  at  their  head,  conducted  the  procession  to 
the  appointed  place.  How  many  burning  piles  has  Rome 
erected  during  the  course  of  ages !  Luther  resolves  to 
make  a  better  application  of  the  great  Roman  principle. 
It  is  only  a  few  old  papers  that  are  about  to  be  destroyed  ; 
and  fire,  thinks  he,  is  intended  for  that  purpose.  A  scaf- 
fold had  been  prepared.  One  of  the  oldest  masters  of 
arts  set  fire  to  it.  As  the  flames  rose  high  into  the  air 
the  formidable  Augustine,  wearing  his  frock,  approached 
the  pile,  carrying  the  Canon  Law,  the  Decretals,  the  Clem- 
entines, the  Papal  Extravagants,  some  writings  by  Eck 
and  Emser,  and  the  pope's  bull.  The  decretals  having 
been  first  consumed,  Luther  held  up  the  bull  and  said, 
'  Since  thou  hast  vexed  the  Holy  One  of  the  Lord,  may 
everlasting  fire  vex  and  consume  thee  ! '  He  then  flung 
it  into  the  flames.  Never  had  war  been  declared  with 
greater  energy  and  resolution.  After  this  Luther  calmly 
returned  to  the  city  ;  and  the  crowd  of  doctors,  professors, 
and  students,  testifying  their  approval  by  loud  cheers, 
reentered  "Wittemberg  with  him.  '  The  decretals,'  said 
Luther, '  resemble  a  body  whose  face  is  meek  as  a  young 


BABTLOX   ON  FIRE.  369 

maiden's,  whose  limbs  are  full  of  violence  like  those  of  a 
lion,  and  whose  tail  is  filled  with  wiles  like  a  serpent. 
Among  all  the  laws  of  the  popes,  there  is  not  one  word 
that  teaches  us  who  is  Jesus  Christ.'  '  My  enemies,'  said 
he  on  another  occasion,  '  have  been  able,  by  burning  my 
books,  to  injure  the  cause  of  truth  in  the  minds  of  the 
common  people,  and  destroy  their  souls  ;  for  this  reason  I 
consumed  their-books  in  return.  A  serious  struggle  has 
just  begun.  Hitherto  I  have  been  only  playing  with  the 
pope.  I  began  this  work  in  God's  name  ;  it  will  be  ended 
without  me  and  by  his  might.  If  they  dare  burn  my 
books,  in  which  more  of  the  gospel  is  to  be  found  (I  speak 
without  boasting)  than  in  all  the  books  of  the  pope,  I  can 
with  much  greater  reason  burn  theirs,  in  which  no  good 
can  be  discovered.' 

"  Luther  had  reentered  Wittemberg.  On  the  morrow 
the  lecture  room  was  more  crowded  than  usual.  All  minds 
were  in  a  state  of  excitement ;  a  solemn  feeling  pervaded 
the  assembly  ;  they  waited,  expecting  an  address  from  the 
doctor.  He  lectured  on  the  Psalms  —  a  course  that  he 
had  commenced  in  the  month  of  March  in  the  preceding 
year.  Having  finished  his  explanations  he  remained  silent 
a  few  minutes,  and  then  continued,  energetically,  'Be  on 
your  guard  against  the  laws  and  statutes  of  the  pope.  I 
have  burned  his  decretals  ;  but  this  is  merely  child's  play. 
It  is  time,  and  more  than  time,  that  the  pope  were  burned  ; 
that  is,  (explaining  himself  immediately,)  the  see  of  Rome, 
with  all  its  doctrines  and  abominations.'  Then,  assuming 
a  more  solemn  tone,  he  added,  '  If  you  do  not  contend  with 
your  whole  heart  against  the  impious  government  of  the 
pope,  you  cannot  be  saved.  Whoever  takes  delight  in  the 
religion  and  worship  of  Popery  will  be  eternally  lost  in 
the  world  to  come.' 

" '  If  you  reject  it,'  continued  he,  '  you  must  expect  to 
incur  every  kind  of  danger,  and  even  to  lose  your  lives. 
But  it  is  far  better  to  be  exposed  to  such  perils  in  this 
world  than  to  keep  silence.  So  long  as  I  live  I  will  de- 
nounce to  my  brethren  the  sore  and  the  plague  of  Baby- 
lon, for  fear  that  many  who  are  with  us  should  fall  back 
like  the  rest  into  the  bottomless  pit.' 

"  We  can  scarcely  imagine  the  eft'ect  produced  on  the 
assembly  by  this  discourse,  the  energy  of  which  surprises 


370         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

us.  '  Not  one  among  us,'  adds  the  candid  student  who  has 
handed  it  down,  '  unless  he  be  a  senseless  log  of  wood, 
(as  all  the  Papists  are,  he  says  parenthetically,)  doubts 
that  this  is  truth  pure  and  undefiled.  It  is  evident  to  all 
believers  that  Dr.  Luther  is  an  angel  of  the  living  God, 
called  to  feed  Christ's  wandering  sheep  with  the  word 
of  God.'" 

Here  we  have  beyond  all  doubt  the  judgment  of  God, 
uttered  by  one  of  his  servants  whom  he  had  raised  up 
and  qualified  to  engage  in  the  great  work  upon  which  the 
interests  of  the  church  and  the  world  and  the  glory  of 
God  were  suspended. 

He  had  prepared  the  way  for  the  work  by  the  removal 
of  the  seat  of  the  Papacy  to  Avignon,  in  France,  after  the 
death  of  Boniface  VIII.,  and  by  the  great  and  terrible 
schism  that  followed  soon  after  it  was  removed  again  to 
Rome.  For  fifty  years  there  were  two  rival  lines  of 
popes,  each  anathematizing  the  other  and  denouncing  each 
other's  crimes  with  about  equal  truth.  Europe  was  nearly 
equally  divided  between  them  ;  and,  as  Bonnechose  says, 
"  The  nations  that  were  subject  to  the  pope,  and  bent  the 
knee  before  this  new  divinity,  knew  not  where  to  find 
their  idol."  Though  the  council  of  Constance  healed  the 
schism,  it  did  not  obliterate  from  the  mind  of  Europe  the 
questionings  to  which  it  gave  rise.  And  as  the  arrogance, 
and  rapacity,  and  immorality  of  the  court  of  Rome  in- 
creased, kings  and  people  were  so  alienated,  that,  when 
Luther  burned  the  pope's  bull,  the  pope  could  not  induce 
the  secular  powers  to  burn  him  ;  and  soon  one  half  of  Eu- 
rope was  in  open  revolt  against  the  Papal  corporation. 

From  that  day  to  this  the  conflagration  has  gone  on  in 
different  parts  of  the  great  city.  In  some  parts  it  has 
been  for  a  time  extinguished  by  torrents  of  blood.  But 
it  is  a  fire  kindled  by  God,  the  Omnipresent,  the  Almighty. 
Before  it  can  be  quenched,  God  must  be*  dethroned. 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE  FIRE  OF  GOD 

WHAT,  then,  are  those  great  elements  of  truth  through 
which  God  develops  his  fiery  energy  and  by  which  he 
will  at  last  utterly  consume  Babylon  the  great  ? 

It  is  greatly  for  our  interest  to  understand  these  truths. 
Our  civil  institutions  as  well  as  our  religious  are  based 
upon  them  ;  and  between  them  and  the  Papal  corporation 
there  is  a  necessary,  an  inevitable,  a  mortal  conflict. 
One  or  the  other  must  die. 

The  vital  principle  of  the  Romish  corporation,  as  we  have 
seen,  is,  that  it  is  God's  avowed  purpose  in  communicating 
his  grace  to  mankind  to  act  through  a  corporate  body  ;  and 
that  they  are  that  body,  under  the  pope,  their  head. 

In  direct  antagonism  to  this  is  the  great  truth  that,  in 
communicating  his  grace  to  man,  it  is  not  God's  purpose 
to  limit  himself  to  act  through  any  one  corporation  what- 
ever, much  less  through  the  corporation  of  Rome.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  his  purpose,  and  ever  has  been,  to 
act  at  his  pleasure  through  individuals,  and  to  array  them 
against  any  and  all  corporations  whenever  necessary  to 
rebuke  their  negligence  of  duty  or  disobedience  to  God. 

It  will  not  be  denied,  not  even  by  a  Romanist  with 
any  reverence  for  God,  that  God  is  able,  if  he  pleases,  to 
manifest  himself  to  individuals  in  all  ages,  independently 
of  any  corporation  ;  to  illuminate  them,  to  sanctify  them, 

(371) 


372         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

to  avert  mental  disease,  to  give  them  wisdom,  courage,  dis- 
cretion, zeal,  energy,  and  in  all  things  to  qualify  them  to 
do  his  will.  None  but  an  atheist  can  deny  that  God  has 
the  power  to  do  this. 

The  question  is  simply  one  of  fact.  It  is  this  :  Is  it 
God's  will  to  do  this  ?  To  this  the  Papists  reply,  No  ; 
the  Protestants,  Yes. 

Here,  then,  is  the  issue  ;  and  there  neither  is  nor  can 
be  a  greater  issue  than  this.  It  is  an  issue  that  divides 
the  world,  and  the  decision  of  which  will  agitate  the 
world  as  with  an  earthquake. 

The  claim  of  any  corporation,  on  any  ground,  of  a 
monopoly  of  the  grace  of  God,  is  the  great  source  of  spirit- 
ual despotism  and  of  religious  and  civil  bondage.  It  is 
the  source  of  all  ecclesiastical  arrogance  and  ambition. 
It  is  an  impious  invasion  of  the  rights  of  individual 
minds  in  God  and  of  the  rights  of  God  in  individual 
minds.  It  assails  the  principles  on  which  God  has  organ- 
ized society,  not  only  in  this,  but  in  all  worlds.  It  is  a 
direct  warfare  with  the  purposes  and  with  the  omnipo- 
tence of  God. 

And  yet  it  is  upon  this  claim  that  the  corporation  of 
Rome  is  based.  This  corporation  arrogates  the  right  to 
come  between  God  and  all  individuals  whatever.  No 
one  can  come  to  God  but  through  them  ;  nor  will  God 
come  to  any  one  but  through  them.  Outside  of  them- 
selves there  is  no  God,  no  radiance  of  heaven  ;  all  is 
empty  of  divine  grace  and  dark  as  the  bottomless  pit. 

This  is  the  great,  the  impious,  the  malignant,  the  all- 
comprehending,  the  heaven-daring,  the  God-defying  lie  of 
Romanism.  It  is  a  lie  on  earth  ;  it  is  a  lie  in  all  worlds  ; 
it  is  at  war  with  the  very  nature  and  structure  of  all 
created  minds. 

Never  will  the  human  mind  be   properly  developed, 


THE  FIEE  OF  GOD.  373 

never  will  man  have  true  freedom,  never  will  society  be 
truly  organized  till  this  is  properly  understood. 

Let  us,  then,  look  into  this  matter.  If  we  once  thor- 
oughly understand  it,  we  shall  need  to  consider  little  else 
in  order  to  see  the  impious  and  damnable  nature  of  the 
claims  of  Rome.  As  Americans,  and  as  lovers  of  our 
country  and  of  the  world,  we  are  specially  called  on  to 
go  to  the  very  roots  of  this  question.  We  are  bound  to 
dig  deep,  till  we  are  sure  that  all  of  our  principles  and 
institutions  are  based  on  the  solid  rock  of  eternal  truth. 

It  is  a  question  of  deep  interest,  What  is  God's  design 
in  raising  up  this  nation  ?  What  is  the  destiny  of  our  in- 
stitutions, and  what  their  dangers  ?  The  usual  answer 
among  us  has  been,  To  aid  in  the  work  of  destroying  the 
despotisms  of  the  old  world  ;  and  their  chief  danger  is 
from  the  Papacy  and  its  connected  civil  systems.  A  new 
answer  has  lately  been  given  :  Our  chief  danger  lies  in 
our  revolt  from  the  Papacy.  Nothing  but  the  Papacy 
can  save  us. 

One  thing  is  plain  —  nothing  but  God  can  save  us  ;  and 
he  will  not  save  us  unless  we  acknowledge  and  defend  his 
rights  in  the  human  soul  and  the  rights  of  the  human 
soul  in  him.  I  propose  to  develop  them  ;  to  show  their 
relations  to  all  organizations,  civil  or  ecclesiastical  ;  and 
to  demonstrate  that  the  claims  of  the  Popish  hierarchy 
are  at  war  with  them  all. 


GOD'S  RIGHTS  IN  THE  SOUL  AND  OF  THE  SOUL  IN  GO! 

God's  rights  in  the  soul  will  be  disclosed  by  studying, 

both  in  the  soul  and  in  his  word,  his  design  in  making  it, 

its  relations  to  God,  and  the  principles  of  his  law.     From 

both  sources  we  learn  that  God  did  not  design  to  make 

32 


374        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  soul  capable  of  independent  perfection  —  that  is,  per- 
fection in  the  separate  and  independent  use  of  its  own 
powers.  On  the  other  hand,  the  soul  was  either  design- 
edly, or  more  probably  of  necessity,  made  and  left  imper- 
fect in  itself,  and  unable  to  gain  its  true  destiny  without 
a  concurrent  action  of  God  in  and  through  it.  Thus  no 
plant  has  in  itself  the  power  of  perfect  development  and 
growth  out  of  its  proper  relations  to  the  soil,  air,  light, 
heat,  and  water,  that  are  designed  to  nourish  and  develop 
it.  Now,  as  these  elements  are  to  the  development  of  a 
plant,  so  is  God  to  the  development  and  perfection  of  the 
mind.  All  created  minds  have  a  natural  and  an  eternal 
need  of  God  in  order  to  retain  moral  and  intellectual 
health  and  to  secure  a  beautiful  and  perfect  development. 

This  necessity  is  so  founded  in  the  nature  of  things  that 
it  cannot  be  suspended.  The  idea  that  any  mind  can  be 
to  itself  as  a  god,  knowing  good  and  evil,  and  that  it  is 
or  can  be  perfect  in  itself  without  a  constant  concurrent 
influence  of  God,  is  the  root  of  pride  and  all  falsehood  ; 
it  is  an  essential  revolt  from  God  and  all  truth.  It  was 
the  primal  sin  and  ruin  of  Satan  ;  it  is  the  radical  ele- 
ment of  his  most  fatal  temptations  in  this  age  of  pride 
and  of  the  worship  of  human  reason. 

Let  us,  then,  look  at  the  correlation  of  God  and  of  the 
human  mind.  As  God  is  infinite  in  intellect,  in  love,  in 
sympathy,  in  power  ;  and  as  he  fills  all  time  and  all  space 
by  his  existence,  attributes,  and  kingdom  ;  and  as  of  the 
increase  of  his  kingdom  there  is  to  be  no  end ;  and  as  the 
mind  was  made  to  know  him  and  be  blessed  in  his  love,  — 
it  was  made  with  power  to  conceive  of  infinitude  in  intel- 
lect, emotion,  sympathy,  time,  space,  numbers,  and  power, 
but  not  to  fill  its  own  conceptions.  It  was  made  to  be 
filled  with  all  the  fulness  of  God,  and  with  nothing  be- 
sides. He  is  the  natural  complement  of  the  soul ;  and  in 
him  it  lives  and  is  perfected. 


THE  FIRE   OP  GOD.  375 

Hence  the  primary  law  of  the  mind  is  direct  conscious 
unity  with  God  in  thought,  love,  and  will.  "  He  that 
dwelleth  in  love  dwelleth  in  God  and  God  in  him.  Ye 
shall  know  that  ye  are  in  me  and  I  in  you.  Because  I 
live,  ye  shall  live  also.  I  live  ;  yet  not  I,  but  Christ  liveth 
in  me.  Thou  art  the  Fountain  of  life.  In  thy  light  shall 
we  see  light."  Hence  God's  rights  in  the  soul  involve  the 
right  to  insist  that  no  created  being  or  corporation  shall 
attempt  to  interfere  with  or  to  prevent  this  direct  union 
of  the  soul  to  God,  this  conscious  personal  contact  of  the 
soul  with  God. 

The  rights  of  the  soul  in  God  correspond.  The  soul 
has  a  right  to  claim  at  all  times  this  personal  access  to 
God,  this  conscious  personal  union  to  him  and  life  and 
perfection  in  and  by  him.  Ko  man  or  body  of  men  have 
a  right  to  attempt  to  monopolize  it  any  more  than  to  mo- 
nopolize the  right  to  breathe  the  air  or  to  see  the  sun. 
These  are  the  fundamental  rights  of  God  and  of  every 
created  being  in  his  universe.  No  personal  rights,  no 
laws  of  organization,  can  rise  above  them.  They  are  the 
very  basis  of  the  universe  —  irrepealable,  eternal. 

Let  us  study  the  relations  of  these  principles  to  faith. 
The  mind  of  man  was  made  to  rest  in  a  certain  knowledge 
of  spiritual  truth.  But  the  centre  of  all  truth  is  God  ; 
for  he  is  the  greatest  of  objects  to  be  known,  and  the  Cre- 
ator of  all  existences  besides  himself,  and  rules  through- 
out the  universe,  and  works  all  things  after  the  counsel 
of  his  own  will.  Of  him,  through  him,  and  to  him  are 
all  things.  Hence  he  is  the  Author  of  all  truth  ;  he  sees  it 
in  all  its  relations  and  harmonies  ;  and  he  is  .the  Sun  who, 
by  his  illuminating  power,  makes  the  system  in  its  symme- 
try visible  to  other  minds. 

It  is  therefore  the  glorious  prerogative  of  God,  and  of 
God  alone,  to  give  to  any  mind  that  highest  certainty  of 


376  THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

spiritual  truth  which  is  necessary  to  give  rest  to  the  soul. 
The  mind,  being  imperfect  in  itself,  cannot,  by  any  process 
of  reasoning  and  power  of  its  own,  put  itself  in  that 
state  of  clear  and  certain  perception  of  the  system  in 
which  it  is,  except  by  that  concurrent  action  of  God  and 
the  soul  for  which  it  was  made.  To  a  soul  in  this  state 
God  is  a  constant,  unsetting  Sun,  in  whose  light  all  truth 
is  seen  in  its  true  colors  and  proportions.  It  is  not  a 
state  of  mysticism  or  enthusiasm,  (using  these  terms  in 
the  common  bad  sense,)  but  a  state  of  calm  intellectual 
and  moral  health  and  life,  in  which  God  guides  and  aids 
in  the  study  of  all  truth,  whether  disclosed  in  the  struc- 
ture and  laws  of  the  mind  itself,  or  of  the  body,  or  of  the 
material  world,  or  by  providence,  or  by  the  revealed 
Scriptures,  and  gives  a  point  of  vision  from  which  to  see 
all  truth. 

This  concurrent  action  of  the  divine  and  human  mind 
is  the  highest  element  of  the  faith  by  which  God  keeps 
the  soul  holy  unto  salvation.  There  is  a  natural  faith,  in- 
volving all  that  the  mind  can  do  to  produce  belief  by  a 
logical  exercise  of  its  own  powers.  But  it  does  not  sat- 
isfy the  wants  of  the  mind  ;  it  does  not  give  rest  to  all 
its  powers  ;  it  does  not  give  that  certainty  and  repose 
for  which  it  longs.  The  concurrent  action  of  God  with 
the  mind  introduces  a  supernatural  element,  and  thus  per- 
fects faith,  meets  all  the  demands  of  the  mind,  and  gives 
it  rest  in  God.  In  his  light  it  sees  light  and  is  certain. 
(See  1  John.  ii.  26,  27.) 

This  leads  to  no  neglect  of  evidence  or  means  of  knowl- 
edge. It  impels  to  the  study  of  the  mind  as  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  and  therefore  the  key  to  unlock  his  mind 
to  the  soul,  to  the  study  of  his  works,  and  providence, 
and  word,  as  parts  of  one  harmonious  disclosure  of  God 
and  his  plans  in  divers  ways.  It  uses  all  parts  of  the  sys- 
tem of  truth,  and  neglects  none. 


THE  FIRE   OF  GOD.  377 

Hence  it  is  a  right  of  God  that  all  souls  shall  come  di- 
rectly to  him  for  faith ;  and  it  is  the  right  of  all  souls 
thus  to  come.  Indeed  it  is  absurd  to  think  of  gaining  it 
in  any  other  way,  and  an  invasion  of  the  rights  of  God 
and  of  man  to  affirm  that  any  man  or  body  of  men  can 
stand  between  God  and  the  soul  as  essential  to  faith. 

This  state  of  faith,  I  have  said,  is  supernatural  ;  not 
because  it  does  not  correspond  with  the  natural  and  origi- 
nal state  of  the  mind,  but  because  all  men  are  fallen,  and 
depraved,  and  separated  from  God  by  sin.  Hence  the  need 
of  atonement,  pardon,  and  regeneration  by  the  Holy  Spir- 
it in  order  to  bring  the  mind  into  this  state  of  faith. 
Hence  all  efforts  to  reach  God  except  through  Christ 
fail  of  producing  faith,  because  they  do  not  convince  of 
sin,  purify  and  forgive,  and  truly  reunite  to  God.  All 
such  efforts  land  in  infidelity,  pantheism,  or  atheism. 


MODES  OF  DIVINE  ACTION  IN  SOCIETY. 

Thus  have  we  considered  God's  direct  action  on  the 
soul  and  the  rights  growing  out  of  it.  Besides  this,  God 
resorts  to  two  indirect  modes  of  action  on  the  soul  — 
one  through  individuals,  another  through  organizations. 
But  these  are  always  subordinated  to  his  rights  as  it  re- 
gards the  first  great  law.  God,  then,  is  pleased  to  sancti- 
fy individual  minds  and  act  and  speak  through  them,  pro- 
ducing by  the  influence  of  creatures  on  creatures  a  new 
series  of  effects.  To  do  this  is  God's  great  delight.  He 
can  train  and  form  individual  minds  exactly  to  his  will, 
and  then  utter  all  his  heart  by  them.  This  is  not  true  of 
corporations  ;  there  is  in  them  no  unity  of  character. 
All  great  revolutions  God  has  produced  by  the  power  of 
individual  minds,  urging  others  towards  God,  holding  up 
32* 


378        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

elevated  principles,  and  yet  leaving  men  free.  Yea,  it  is 
the  instinctive  tendency  of  all  such  minds  to  throw  men 
off  from  themselves  upon  God.  If  any  fall  down  to  wor- 
ship, they  say  with  the  angel,  "  See  thou  do  it  not.  I  am 
thy  fellow-servant.  "Worship  God." 

Lastly.  God  acts  indirectly  through  organization, 
through  the  family,  schools,  churches,  and  civil  govern- 
ments. But  the  first  duty  of  all  such  organizations  is,  not 
to  rise  above  God's  first  law  and  rights,  but  to  regard 
and  defend  them  against  all  invasion.  Of  civil  govern- 
ments, the  ends  are,  to  prescribe  the  established  modes  of 
organic  action  and  to  regulate  and  defend  rights.  Their 
great  effort  should  be  to  remove  the  disposition  to  do 
wrong,  to  increase  individual  knowledge  and  the  power 
of  self-government,  and  to  throw  as  much  responsibility 
on  individuals,  families,  and  towns  as  they  can,  and  thus 
reduce  the  work  of  the  higher  class  of  rulers  to  the 
smallest  possible  extent.  Thus,  as  the  individuals,  fami- 
lies, and  towns  become  a  law  unto  themselves,  will  the 
general  government  be  more  and  more  simple  and  less 
and  less  expensive.  Reject,  too,  the  idea  that  any  organi- 
zation has  been  established  for  the  honor,  glory,  or  emol- 
ument of  those  who  use  it,  or  that  God  has  any  interest 
in  having  it  so.  The  highest  honor  that  God  can  receive 
is  to  give  constant  force  to  the  first  great  direct  law  of 
concurrent  action  between  him  and  the  soul  ;  for  it  is 
the  true  glory  of  God,  by  a  direct  and  omnipresent  yet 
invisible  influence  on  all  men,  to  reduce  the  world  to  such 
order  that  all  human  governments  will  become  so  simple 
that  men  will  scarcely  feel  their  existence,  and  only  use 
them  as  necessary  guides  and  rules  of  organic  action. 
Hence  the  idea  that  the  glory  of  God  can  be  promoted 
by  exalting  the  glory  of  a  given  external  organization  is 
false  and  absurd. 


THE  FIRE  OF  GOD.  379 

The  glory  of  God  consists  in  the  universal  instruction, 
sanctification,  and  exaltation  of  the  individuals  of  the  hu- 
man race  to  the  highest  degree,  and  in  the  government  of 
them  by  his  invisible  but  sweet  and  blessed  power,  and 
then  arranging  them  in  those  simple  and  free  organiza- 
tions into  which  men  would  naturally  fall  who  are  thus 
filled  with  the  fulness  of  God. 


THE   GLORY  OF  AMERICAN  INSTITUTIONS. 

This  is  the  true  view  of  the  principles  of  organization  ; 
and  it  is  the  grand  peculiarity  of  ours,  first  of  all  on 
earth,  that  they  are  based  on  the  principle  of  defending 
to  the  utmost  the  rights  of  God  in  the  human  soul  and 
of  the  human  soul  in  God.  And,  if  properly  used,  they 
can  secure  the  perfect  results  of  which  I  have  spoken. 

De  Tocqueville  noticed  with  admiration  the  extent  to 
which  in  our  institutions  the  responsibilities  of  govern- 
ment were  thrown  upon  the  townships,  families,  and  indi- 
viduals, and  thus  withdrawn  from  the  care  of  the  state 
and  national  governments.  Increase  this  tendency;  defend 
the  rights  of  God  in  individuals  and  the  rights  of  indi- 
viduals in  God  ;  give  new  power  to  the  direct  relationship 
between  God  and  the  soul;  and,  as  the  power  of  the  invis- 
ible government  of  God  increases,  the  cares  and  respon- 
sibilities of  the  state  and  national  governments  will  be- 
come less.  Every  thing  in  our  organizations  will  be  sim- 
plified ;  men  will  be  free  as  the  air  that  they  breathe  ;  and, 
over  all,  and  in  all,  and  through  all,  the  invisible  but  om- 
nipresent God  will  be  for  a  glory  and  for  a  defence. 

This  is  not  the  infidel  or  transcendental  millennium  ;  it 
is  the  true  Protestant,  scriptural  view.  It  is  based  on  the 
great  original  law  of  immediate  personal  union  between 


380        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

individual  souls  and  God,  and  a  reliance  on  the  power  and 
willingness  of  God  to  regenerate  the  individual  members 
of  the  community  by  the  truth,  and  thus  restore  fallen  and 
depraved  man  to  that  law,  and  a  system  of  universal 
education  designed  to  qualify  every  individual  for  self- 
government  under  the  influence  of  a  divine  faith  in  God, 
which  satisfies  the  highest  affections  of  the  mind  in  him, 
keeps  the  intellect  and  moral  powers  in  health  and  in  de- 
lightful harmony  with  all  truth,  removes  all  doubt  by  a 
delightful  certainty,  and  makes  all  organizations  the 
servants,  and  not  the  masters,  of  the  soul.  This  is  the 
glorious  result  foreseen  by  Isaiah  when  he  says,  "  Thy  sun 
shall  no  more  go  down  nor  thy  moon  withdraw  itself  ;  for 
the  Lord  shall  be  thine  everlasting  light  and  thy  God  thy 
glory." 

JUDGMENT  OF  POPERY  BY  THIS  STANDARD. 

And  now  we  have  before  us  a  standard  of  judgment. 
This  is  the  state  towards  which  all  true  views  of  God  and 
man  tend.  By  it  let  us  proceed  to  test  the  Papal  corpora- 
tion. What  are  its  principles  ?  To  what  does  it  tend  ? 
I  answer,  in  a  word,  To  expel  from  the  world  all  rights  of 
open,  free,  direct,  individual  intercourse  with  God  ;  to 
repeal  and  tread  under  foot  the  fundamental  law  of  the 
universe  of  created  minds ;  to  expel  God  from  the  world 
as  its  present  Ruler  and  Governor  ;  to  put  the  Papal  corpo- 
ration in  his  place,  and  to  make  the  work  of  glorifying  and 
exalting  this  corporation  more  important  than  holiness 
itself  and  the  great  duty  of  man,  so  that  in  effect  it  shall 
be  the  only  ruling  god  of  this  world  ;  to  arrest  entirely 
the  healing,  illuminating,  and  regenerating  influence  of  the 
divine  mind  ;  to  destroy  the  power  of  intelligent  self- 
government  ;  to  corrupt  all  of  the  organizations  of  society; 


THE  FIRE   OP   GOD.  381 

and  to  sink  the  whole  world  into  the  deep  abyss  of  a  polluted, 
extorting,  extravagant,  centralized,  spiritual  despotism.  It 
is  the  most  perfect  device  the  devil  ever  contrived  for 
utterly  destroying  the  appropriate  influences  of  Christianity 
on  the  human  mind  and  human  society.  To  do  this,  it  first 
invents  the  truly  diabolical  dogma  of  a  mysterious,  invisi- 
ble, unintelligible  something  which  it  calls  grace,  and 
which  is  transmitted  to  the  soul,  not  by  instruction,  nor  by 
any  truth  perceived  and  felt,  nor  by  any  intelligent  action 
of  the  intellect  and  emotions,  but  by  external,  material 
means  called  sacraments.  This  above  all  other  things  is 
an  exquisite  device  of  the  devil  to  destroy  the  importance 
of  instruction,  and  intelligent,  personal  communion  with 
God  ;  it  is  the  master  key  to  the  dungeon  of  spiritual 
despotism  ;  for,  the  moment  you  make  external,  material 
sacraments  the  channel  of  what  is  called  grace  instead  of 
instruction  and  a  clear  perception  of  the  truth,  and  then 
give  to  the  Romish  corporation  the  sole  right  to  administer 
these  sacraments,  you  have  darkened  and  enslaved  the 
world.  The  importance  of  study,  preaching,  thought  is 
destroyed.  A  dead  language  is  as  good  as  any  other  as  a 
medium  of  worship.  A  cloud  is  drawn  over  God  and  the 
glories  of  his  throne  ;  all  direct  access  to  him  for  life  is 
cut  off  ;  and  men  lie  trembling  at  the  feet  of  those  who,  by 
refusing  the  sacraments,  can  exclude  them  from  heaven 
and  consign  them  to  hell.  The  power  over  the  sacraments, 
on  this  view,  is  the  possession  of  the  keys  of  heaven  and 
hell ;  and  it  involves  the  virtual  destruction  of  all  need  of 
preaching  or  of  thought. 

2.  This  corporation  has  corrupted  all  ideas  of  saving 
faith  by  designedly  shaking  confidence  in  the  Bible  as  a 
revelation  intelligible  to  the  common  mind  and  sufficient  for 
salvation  through  faith  in  Christ.  It  has  even  taken  part 
with  infidels  in  their  assaults  on  the  written  Scriptures,  to 


THE   PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

create  the  necessity  of  aid  from  an  infallible  corporation, 
•with  the  design  of  making  saving  faith  to  mean,  in  fact,  an 
implicit  belief  in  just  what  they  say,  instead  of  a  penitent 
reliance  on  the  atonement  of  Christ  for  salvation,  by  which 
the  soul  is  reunited  directly  to  God  and  the  affections  and 
will  harmonized  with  those  of  God.  The  design  is  to  cut 
man  off  from  God  and  from  the  Bible  and  to  destroy  all 
standards  of  appeal  above  and  beyond  themselves,  making 
the  Bible  merely  their  creature  and  tool,  and  its  meaning 
just  what  suits  them  best.  They  tell  us  the  Bible  is  a  dead 
book  and  needs  a  living  interpreter.  Do  not  all  human 
lawgivers  say  they  establish  judges  to  interpret  human 
laws  ?  But  the  cases  are  unlike.  Men  make  human  laws 
and  can  unmake  them,  and  their  penalties  are  limited  to 
this  world.  Men  also  can  remove  judges  if  they  interpret 
wrongfully.  God  makes  a  revelation  ;  and,  when  made, 
not  all  the  earth  can  alter  it ;  and  its  penalties  are  beyond 
this  world  and  eternal.  He,  therefore,  who  has  the  exclu- 
sive divine  power  to  interpret  a  divine,  immutable  revela- 
tion, has  in  full  all  of  the  powers  of  the  Deity  centred  in 
him  ;  nor  can  the  whole  world  judge  or  remove  him.  He 
is  the  acting  god  of  this  world.  His  word  is  law  :  the 
Bible  is  nothing.  The  system  is  in  theory  and  practice  an 
annihilation  of  God  and  of  the  Bible,  and  an  enthronement 
of  the  pope  or  the  Papal  corporation  in  place  of  God  ; 
and  all  that  the  pope  has  ever  claimed,  all  that  his  highest 
flatterers  ever  gave  him,  to  reign  as  the  only  god  on 
earth,  is  the  legitimate  result  of  the  system  either  for  him 
or  for  his  corporation.  Thus  does  this  corporation  repeal 
the  first  great  law  of  God,  destroy  the  rights  of  God  in 
the  human  soul  and  the  rights  of  the  human  soul  in  God, 
and  concentrate  in  itself  all  of  the  prerogatives  of  God. 

3.  The  Papal  corporation  exalts  the  importance  of  a 
mere  organization  above  the  importance  of  holiness.    It 


THE   FIRE   OF   GOD.  383 

makes  an  alleged  means  of  more  importance  to  God  than 
the  great  end  of  all  means  ;  that  is,  personal  union  to  God 
in  holiness  and  truth.  It  has  acted  on  and  established  the 
principle  that  the  Papal  corporation  is  so  important  that 
no  amount  of  sin  in  its  head,  or  members,  or  servants  can 
vacate  its  charter.  If  the  pope  is  the  veriest  moral 
monster  ever  seen  on  earth  ;  if  the  bishops  are  a  gang  of 
debauchees  and  swindlers  ;  if  the  priests  are  all  fornicators, 
adulterers,  and  seducers,  —  it  is  no  sufficient  reason  for 
abandoning  the  system.  IF  THE  RIGHTS  OF  THE  CORPORATION 
ARE  GIVEN  UP  OR  DESTROYED,  then  the  gates  of  hell  pre- 
vail against  the  church.  But  if  every  vestige  of  hpliness 
ceases  in  the  popes  for  centuries, —  if  bishops  and  priests  are 
for  centuries  sunk  in  the  slough  of  sensuality  and  pollution, 
and  become  the  chief  corrupters  of  the  human  race,  —  still, 

IF  THE  CORPORATION  ONLY  KEEPS  ITS   POWER,  then  the  gates 

of  hell  do  not  prevail ;  then  the  church  is  safe.  What 
higher  blasphemy  of  God,  what  higher  contempt  of  holi- 
ness, is  possible  than  is  involved  in  these  principles  ?  And 
yet  they  are  the  real  and  only  practical  principles  of  the 
Romish  corporation ;  and  they  have  acted  them  out  for 
ages. 

If  any  amount  of  the  vilest  sins  that  the  mind  of  man 
can  conceive,  in  popes,  bishops,  and  priests,  could  vacate  the 
claims  of  a  corporation,  long  since  those  of  Rome  had 
been  vacated.  The  records  of  the  world  may  be  searched 
in  vain  for  such  depths  of  moral  pollution  and  degradation 
as  are  found  in  the  history  of  this  corporation,  not  as  rare 
exceptions  for  long  centuries,  but  as  the  general  law. 
The  hierarchy  and  the  priesthood  of  Rome  have,  as  a 
general  fact,  been  the  great  central  channel  of  the  pollu- 
tions of  the  Romish  world,  an  insult  to  God,  a  scandal  to 
humanity.  Nor  need  we  wonder.  The  system  is  skilfully 
framed,  according  to  all  the  laws  of  the  human  mind,  to 


384        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

produce  these  results.  It  is  by  its  structure  the  hotbed 
of  ambition,  pride,  the  love  of  money  and  of  power.  The 
great  law  of  the  compulsory  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  together 
with  the  established  practice  of  appointing  unmarried  ec- 
clesiastics to  examine  females  in  the  confessional  on  all 
points  on  which  a  polluted  mind  can  form  a  conception,  is 
as  perfect  a  system  for  debauching  the  clergy  as  Satan 
could  devise ;  and,  when  not  checked  by  Protestantism,  it 
has  been  terribly,  inconceivably  effectual.  The  sober  facts 
of  history  are  too  shameful  to  state.  They  are  so  enor- 
mous as  to  defy  belief  till  the  philosophy  of  the  system  is 
studied  from  which  they  spring.  And  yet  the  system  is 
skilfully  constructed  to  sustain  and  survive  all  this.  That 
satanic  idea  of  grace,  "where  there  is  neither  Christian 
instruction  nor  Christian  example,  grace  through  material 
sacraments,  and  in  spite  of  a  polluted  corporation,  removes 
the  whole  difficulty.  It  gives  to  Satan  his  highest  result. 
It  enables  him  to  establish  on  earth,  in  the  name  of  God, 
a  corporate  body,  with  an  irrevocable  charter,  which  no 
amount  of  sin  can  forfeit. 

Let  the  pope  be  or  do  what  he  may.  He  may  be  (and 
I  am  now  referring  to  actual  facts)  an  atheist ;  he  may  be 
perjured  before  God  and  man  ;  he  may  be  a  poisoner  and 
an  assassin  ;  he  may  be  a  drunkard  ;  he  may  be  an  infidel, 
a  blasphemer,  an  adulterer ;  he  may  sacrifice  to  Venus 
and  to  the  devil ;  he  may  commit  incest  with  his  own  ille- 
gitimate daughter ;  he  may  debauch  by  violence  all  the 
females  who  come  to  Rome  on  whom  he  can  lay  his 
hands  ;  the  majority  of  the  popes  for  long,  dark  ages 
may  give  no  evidence  of  piety,  and  clear  proof  that  they 
are  the  firstborn  of  Satan.  It  makes  no  odds.  Home  is 
still  the  centre  of  unity  for  the  whole  Christian  world. 
The  pope  in  his  bulls,  speaking  ex  cathedra,  is  still  the 
father  of  all  Romanists  and  the  voice  of  God  to  them. 


THE   FIRE   OF   GOD.  385 

The  system  still  stands.  Apostolic  grace  still  descends 
through  the  great  filthy  central  channel. 

So,  too,  the  bishops  assembled  in  council  may  be  igno- 
rant, polluted,  and  sunk  in  the  slough  of  all  filth.  They 
i^ay  so  debauch  the  place  in  which  they  meet  as  to  make 
it  one  vast  house  of  ill  fame,  as  Matthew  Paris,  a  contem- 
porary historian,  states  that  Cardinal  Hugo  in  his  closing 
speech  after  the  council  of  Lyons  declared  to  be  a  fact 
as  regarded  that  place  ;  they  may  discuss  doctrines  in  the 
midst  of  throngs  of  prostitutes  gathered  for  their  recep- 
tion, as  was  the  case  in  the  co'uncil  of  Constance,  accord- 
ing to  Dachery,  Bruys,  and  the  Vienna  manuscript ; 
their  character  may  be  like  that  of  the  council  of  Con- 
stance drawn  by  Baptiza,  one  of  its  own  members,  "  actu- 
ated only  by  malice,  iniquity,  pride,  vanity,  ignorance, 
lasciviousness,  avarice,  pomp,  simony,  and  dissimulation." 
Still  such  men  are  authorized  to  call  themselves  a  holy 
council,  assembled  in  the  Holy  Ghost  to  interpret  infal- 
libly the  word  of  God  and  to  commit  all  contumacious 
rebels  against  their  authority  to  the  flames.  God,  it 
seems,  has  given  an  irrevocable  charter  to  such  councils 
to  preserve  in  its  purity  the  Christian  faith.  And  so 
firm  is  this  charter  that  no  conceivable  amount  of  sin 
can  vacate  it. 

So,  too,  the  whole  clergy  may  be,  in  the  language  of  St. 
Bernard,  "  pastors  in  name,  but  in  reality  plunderers ; 
who,  unsatisfied  with  the  fleece,  thirst  for  the  blood  of  the 
flock,  and  merit  the  appellation  of  traitors  ;  who  do  not 
feed,  but  slay  and  devour,  the  sheep ;  who  melt  in  the  fur- 
nace of  covetousness,  and  dare  for  gain  to  barter  assas- 
sination, adultery,  incest,  fornication,  sacrilege,  and  per- 
jury." And  yet  it  makes  no  odds.  The  system  has  a 
charter  from  God.  No  amount  of  sin  can  repeal  it. 

The  time  from  the  tenth  to  the  sixteenth  century  is  the 
33 


386         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

time  of  the  most  full  and  perfect  development  of  the  sys- 
tem of  the  Papal  corporation ;  and  during  this  time,  accord- 
ing to  their  own  historians,  the  Papal  world,  clergy  and 
laity,  were,  as  a  general  fact,  sunk 'in  the  lowest  depth  of 
moral  pollution. 

Sabellicus,  Stella,  Baronius,  Giannone,  Dupin,  William 
of  Paris,  Spondanus,  Morlaix,  Honorius,  St.  Bernard,  John 
of  Salisbury,  Alliaco,  Petrarch,  Dante,  Marianna,  ^Egid- 
ius,  Mirandula,  Fordun,  Gerson,  Madruccio,  Cervino, 
Pole,  Monte,  Sarpi,  and  others  may  be  summoned  to  estab- 
lish these  assertions  by  an  amount  of  testimony  and  in 
a  fervor  and  eloquence  of  language  in  comparison  with 
which  all  I  have  said  or  can  say  would  be  weak  and  pow- 
erless. 

They  deemed  these  results,  indeed,  abuses  of  the  true 
system,  and  called  aloud  for  reform.  But  they  were  no 
abuses;  they  were  its  genuine  legitimate  results.  The 
system  is  exquisitely  adapted  by  satanic  skill  utterly 
to  corrupt  those  whose  example  and  influence  must 
have  chief  power,  and  by  them  to  debauch  and  ruin  the 
world.  Hence,  the  nearer  you  come  to  the  centre  of  the 
system,  the  deeper  in  all  ages  has  been  the  moral  degra- 
dation. 

Now,  suppose  in  the  days  of  Christ  it  had  been  said  to 
Satan,  God's  great  law  of  influencing  men  by  a  holy  ex- 
ample is  now  developed  in  full  power  in  Christ  and.  in 
Paul  and  the  apostles  ;  there  are  free  churches,  and  God 
is  open  to  all ;  you  are  in  imminent  danger  of  ruin  ;  what 
will  you  do  ?  and  suppose  he  had  said,  I  will  by  forgeries 
concentrate  all  these  free  churches  under  one  head  ;  I  will 
cut  off  all  men  from  the  right  of  direct  access  to  God  with- 
out him  and  his  corporation  ;  I  will  make  him,  when 
fully  developed,  the  image  of  the  devil,  and  debase  the 
corporation  to  the  lowest  depths  of  pollution  ;  and  yet  I 


THE  FIRE  OF  GOD.  387 

will  give  them  an  irrepealable  charter  from  God  to  be 
the  only  channels  of  life  to  the  world,  —  would  it  not  have 
seemed  incredible  even  to  hell  itself  that  such  a  work 
could  be  done  ?  Yet  it  has  been  done  ;  and  Mr.  Brownson 
has  the  audacity  to  present  this  system  to  us  as  the  only 
road  to  heaven  and  the  only  defence  of  our  free  institu- 
tions from  ruin. 

4.  Let  us,  then,  finally  look  at  the  influence  of  this  sys- 
tem on  civil  organizations.  Let  such  a  power,  then,  exist 
and  develop  itself,  and  gain  full  control  over  the  people, 
and  it  will  surely  overrule,  and  subdue,  and  corrupt  all 
the  civil  authorities  of  our  country  —  nay,  of  the  world. 
The  central  theocracy  will  control  the  people  by  the  fears 
of  hell  and  the  hope  of  heaven,  and  in  a  conflict  with 
rulers  will  undermine  them,  if  they  dare  to  resist,  by  turn- 
ing the  people  against  them,  as  they  did  in  the  middle 
ages.  Again :  the  central  theocracy  will  divide  the  civil 
powers  and  subdue  them  one  by  one,  rallying  the  obedi- 
ent against  the  refractory,  as  it  did  in  the  case  of  John 
of  England.  If  he  had  not  submitted,  his  kingdom  would 
have  been  given  to  the  King  of  France.  And  so  long  as 
the  sphere  of  every  civil  power  is.  local,  while  the  theoc- 
racy is  universal  and  holds  the  people  by  the  hopes  and 
fears  of  eternity,  any  civil  power  can  be  overruled  and 
crushed. 

I  need  not  say  that  the  system  has  no  tendency  to 
sanctify  and  educate  the  masses,  and  make  individuals 
independent  thinkers,  and  to  throw  them  upon  God  for 
life,  light,  and  government :  this  course  would  be  inev- 
itable death  to  the  system.  Its  managers  well  know  it, 
and  hate  and  fear  such  a  course  as  they  do  the  plague. 
What  they  desire  is,  not  a  people  so  holy,  so  elevated  as 
individuals,  so  intelligent,  so  given  to  reading,  thought, 
and  prayer,  and  so  fixed  in  truth  by  direct  faith  in  God 


388        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

and  life  in  him  that  he,  and  he  only,  is  their  real  and  con- 
stant rule,  but  implicit,  unquestioning  faith  in  themselves 
and  unthinking  obedience  to  their  decrees.  Never  did 
they  make  deliberate  efforts  to  give  an  elevating  educa- 
tion to  the  mass  of  the  people  —  never  will  they.  It  is 
death  to  the  system  to  do  it. 

Nor  does  the  system  tend  in  its  ultimate  results  to 
simplify  organization  and  reduce  the  expenses  of  govern- 
ment. By  its  own  spirit  and  example  it  fosters  the  love 
of  worldly  pomp  and  authority  and  of  extravagant  cen- 
tralized aristocratic  systems.  It  will  be,  as  it  always  has 
been,  the  great  corrupter  of  all  earthly  governments,  by 
sanctioning  in  the  name  of  God  all  the  sins  and  abuses 
to  which  they  are  most  prone.  Think  what  a  centraliza- 
tion of  government  would  be  effected  if  all  the  religious 
interests  of  a  hierarchy,  governing  Europe,  Asia,  Africa, 
North  and  South  America,  and  the  islands  of  the  sea,  were 
centralized  at  Rome !  What  trains  of  legates,  what  a 
complicated  machinery  of  ecclesiastical  rulers,  for  the 
whole  globe  I  What  imagination  can  penetrate  the  infi- 
nite details,  the  boundless  extravagance  and  extortion,  of 
such  a  system?  And  with  such  examples  before  their 
eyes,  will  secular  rulers,  in  their  civil  relations,  learn  to 
be  simple,  humble,  and  unassuming?  And  will  society 
ever  be  regulated  simply  by  the  spiritual  presence  of  an 
invisible  God,  as  an  unsetting  sun  ?  Never  ;  no,  never. 

Finally.  It  is  not  possible  for  the  human  mind  to 
conceive  of  a  more  perfect  antagonist  to  God  and  to  his 
system  and  to  our  institutions  than  exists  in  the  system 
of  the  Papal  corporation.  It  meets  and  conflicts  with 
them  at  every  point  with  deadly  hatred.  In  one  system 
is  developed  the  full  soul  of  Satan,  in  the  other  of  God  ; 
and  it  is  the  final  collision  of  these  systems  and  their 
advocates  that  is  near  at  hand.  So  sure  as*  there  is  a 


THE  FIEE   OF  GOD.  389 

God,  the  result  cannot  be  doubtful.  The  Papal  corpora- 
tion and  its  allies  shall  be  cast  alive  into  the  lake  of  fire. 

We  are  to  judge  of  the  real  end  of  a  system  by  regard- 
ing, not  what  it  professes,  but  what  it  is  adapted  to  do 
and  what  in  fact  it  has  done. 

If  a  set  of  men  were  among  us  from  Russia,  building 
massive  stone  buildings,  forging  chains,  putting  in  grated 
windows,  fitting  up  dark  cells,  and  surrounding  them  with 
walls,  and  should  all  the  time  profess  to  be  merely  erect- 
ing colleges ;  then  putting  up  strong  stone  edifices  on 
commanding  points,  with  portholes,  and  trenches,  and 
covered  ways,  calling  them  barns  for  cattle,  and  then  fill- 
ing other  buildings  with  muskets,  and  powder,  and  shot, 
and  calling  them  hunting  establishments ;  and  if,  in  the 
whole  empire  of  Russia,  there  was  talk  of  colonies  to 
America,  of  officers  and  students  for  the  colleges,  and  of 
farmers  to  take  care  of  these  barns,  and  of  hunters  to  use 
these  guns,  —  do  you  think  that  this  thin  veil  of  words  would 
hide  the  real  nature  of  the  system  that  was  in  preparation  ? 
Would  not  the  sagacious  say,  These  are  fine  words  indeed; 
but  this  looks  far  more  like  war,  and  subjugation,  and 
prisons,  than  like  colleges,  and  barns,  and  hunting? 

Even  so  it  is  with  this  system.  It  calls  itself,  boastfully, 
the  only  holy  church.  Its  avowed  ends  are  to  produce 
faith,  and  thus  to  save  souls ;  to  restore  men  to  God,  to 
disclose  his  relations,  to  lead  them  to  keep  his  laws.  But, 
judged  by  its  structure,  its  real  and  only  end  is  to  aggran- 
dize a  set  of  ecclesiastics  at  the  expense  of  God  and  the 
human  race. 

It  is  precisely  adapted  to  enable  a  set  of  the  most  un- 
principled men  whom  the  world  ever  saw  to  make  use 
of  the  name  of  God  and  of  the  eternal  sanctions  of  his 
government  as  the  basis  of  a  system  the  great  end  of 
which  is  to  subjugate  the  human  race  to  themselves,  and 
33* 


390         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

to  make  them  the  abject  instruments  for  the  promotion  of 
their  own  honor,  power,  and  wealth  at  the  expense  of  all 
holiness  and  truth. 

Strip  off  the  hypocritical  garb  of  religious  names,  re- 
move the  disgusting  cant  about  the  holiness  of  this  cor- 
poration, which  the  history  of  all  ages  contradicts,  and 
the  system  is  simply  what  God  in  his  own  terrific  language 
has  declared  it  to  be  —  the  habitation  of  devils,  the  hold  of 
every  foul  spirit,  and  a  cage  of  every  unclean  and  hateful 
bird. 

And  the  single  question  is,  Shall  God  rule  the  world 
by  a  holy  church  ?  or  the  devil,  through  this  mother  of  har- 
lots and  of  abominations  ?  Of  this  question  who  can  doubt 
the  issue?  The  systems  are  fast  coming  into  their  last 
collision ;  and,  when  the  time  comes,  one  final,  sudden  blow 
from  God  shall  smite  the  brain  of  the  system,  and  its  con- 
vulsive dying  agonies  shall  be  felt  in  every  land  as  a  voice 
from  the  throne  shall  proclaim,  It  is  done !  This  work  be- 
longs to  God  alone ;  it  is  his  last  and  greatest  work  be- 
fore he  reigns  on  earth.  To  him,  then,  let  the  eyes  of  the 
church  be  directed  in  earnest,  fervent  prayer  till  he  comes. 


CHAPTER    III. 

PROTESTANTISM  DEFENDED. 

IP  Eomanism  is  in  its  very  essence,  as  has  been  proved, 
a  fraudulent,  perfidious,  and  treacherous  conspiracy 
against  all  of  the  rights  of  humanity  ;  if  its  tendencies 
and  results  prove  it  to  be  the  immitigable  enemy  of  man- 
kind in  all  their  interests,  pecuniary,  social,  civil,  and 
religious  ;  if  its  lofty,  arrogant,  and  impious  claims  are 
based  upon  mere  imposture  ;  if  it  was  originated  and 
perfected  only  through  a  series  of  the  most  stupendous 
frauds  and  forgeries,  in  comparison  with  which  the  forge- 
ries of  Mormonism  are  completely  thrown  into  the  shade  ; 
if  it  has  always  rendered  its  clergy,  as  a  body,  debauched, 
licentious,  and  profligate,  so  that  the  open  though  corrupt 
polygamy  of  Mormonism  is  no  worse,  or  rather  is  much 
better,  than  their  atrocious  and  widespread  seductions  — 
only  a  very  small  part  of  which  has  ever  come  to  light, 
though  even  that  small  part  is  enough  to  fill  the  world 
with  their  infamy  ;  if,  when  in  power,  they  have  remorse- 
lessly butchered  whole  Christian  communities,  whose  only 
crime  was  that  they  preferred  the  truth  and  purity  of 
God  to  the  impositions  and  to  the  pollutions  of  Rome  ; 
if  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the  system  (avowed,  estab- 
lished, and  practised  by  councils,  popes,  and  Jesuits)  to  lie, 
to  swear  falsely,  and  to  practise  perjury  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  heretics ;  if  the  system  is  the  most  perfect 

(391) 


392        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

incarnation  of  all  villany,  diabolism,  and  profligacy  ever 
known  on  earth  ;  if  the  conscientious  treachery  and 
stranglings  of  the  Thugs  of  India,  in  the  service  of  their 
malign  divinity,  are  altogether  eclipsed  by  the  conscien- 
tious treachery  and  butcheries,  burnings  and  tortures,  of 
Eomish  popes,  bishops,  priests,  and  inquisitors  ;  if  all  this 
and  more  is  true,  (and  that  it  is  true  has  been  shown,  not 
by  declamation,  but  by  a  simple  statement  of  only  a  part 
of  the  multitudinous  facts  of  history  —  facts  open,  noto- 
rious, uncontrovertible  —  facts  that  blaze  from  the  pages 
of  history  like  the  sun  at  noonday,) —  then  no  more  need 
be  said  to  justify  the  existence  of  Protestantism  and  to 
vindicate  its  godlike  character  and  divine  origin.  It  is 
enough  to  say  that  it  is  the  protest  of  God,  through  the 
Bible  and  through  humanity,  against  a  system  of  such 
atrocity  and  blasphemy. 

To  decide  this  whole  great  controversy,  nothing  is 
needed  but  a  simple  historical  statement  of  what  Popery 
is  and  has  done.  Moreover,  if  the  European  and  Ameri- 
can world  do  not  mean  to  have  this  infernal  system 
astride  their  necks  forever,  like  the  old  man  of  the  moun- 
tains upon  the  neck  of  Sinbad  the  sailor  ;  if,  in  the  elo- 
quent words  of  Conelly,  they  do  not  mean  to  have  Rome 
weigh  down  upon  their  dearest  hopes  and  most  sacred 
interests  "  like  an  eternal  nightmare  ; "  if  they  do  not 
wish  to  have  the  integrity  and  morals  of  the  globe  para- 
lyzed and  palsied  by  those  satanic  conspirators,  male  and 
female,  whom  Rome  trains  up  and  sends  forth  under  the 
name  of  Jesuits  to  corrupt  the  nations,  —  then  the  system, 
the  whole  system,  must  be  radically  and  eternally  de- 
stroyed. It  has  kept  no  terms  with  humanity  ;  humanity 
should  keep  no  terms  with  it.  It  has  kept  no  terms  with 
God  ;  and  God  will  assuredly  keep  no  terms  with  it.  It 
has  impiously  usurped  his  place  on  earth.  All  common 


PROTESTANTISM   DEPENDED.  393 

blasphemy  disappears  and  is  forgotten  in  comparison 
with  the  blasphemy  of  the  popes  and  their  insensate 
worshippers.  They  have  not  only  claimed  power  as  God, 
but  above  God  and  against  God  ;  and  let  the  nations  be 
assured  that  he  will  not  hold  them  guiltless  forever. 
The  day  of  his  judgment  hastens  ;  it  is  at  hand. 

Yes,  humanity  shall  at  length  be  released  from  this 
widespread  and  long-enduring  curse.  Yes,  it  shall  come 
to  pass  that  the  Lord  shall  give  the  nations  rest  from 
their  sorrow,  and  from  their  fear,  and  from  their  hard 
bondage  wherein  they  have  been  made  to  serve.  Then 
shall  they  take  up  this  proverb  against  the  King  of  Baby- 
lon and  say,  How  hath  the  oppressor  ceased,  the  golden 
city  ceased !  The  Lord  hath  broken  the  staff  of  the 
wicked,  the  sceptre  of  the  rulers.  He  who  smote  the 
people  in  wrath  with  a  continual  stroke,  he  that  ruled  the 
nations  in  anger,  is  persecuted,  and  none  hindereth.  The 
whole  earth  is  at  rest  and  is  quiet ;  they  break  forth  into 
singing.  Hell  from  beneath  is  moved  to  receive  her 
own  once  more  and  lament  over  his  fall.  Then  shall  it 
be  said  alike  in  heaven  and  on  earth,  How  art  thou  fallen 
from  heaven,  0  Lucifer,  son  of  the  morning !  How  art 
thou  cut  down  to  the  ground  that  didst  weaken  the  na- 
tions !  For  thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart,  I  will  ascend 
into  heaven ;  I  will  exalt  my  throne  above  the  stars  of 
God  ;  I  will  ascend  above  the  heights  of  the  clouds  ;  I 
will  be  like  the  Most  High.  Yet  thou  shalt  be  brought 
down  to  hell,  to  the  sides  of  the  pit.  They  that  see  thee 
shall  narrowly  look  upon  thee  and  consider  thee,  saying, 
Is  this  the  man  that  made  the  earth  to  tremble,  that  did 
shake  kingdoms  ?  For  I  will  rise  up  against  him,  saith 
the  Lord,  and  will  cut  off  from  Babylon  name  and  rem- 
nant, and  son  and  nephew  ;  and  I  will  sweep  it  with  the 
besom  of  destruction,  saith  the  Lord.  The  Lord  of 


394  THE  PAPAL   CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

hosts  hatli  sworn,  saying,  Surely  as  I  have  thought  so 
shall  it  come  to  pass  ;  and  as  I  have  purposed,  so  shall  it 
stand.  For  the  Lord  of  hosts  hath  purposed;  and  who 
shall  disannul  it  ?  And  his  hand  is  stretched  out ;  and 
who  shall  turn  it  back  ? 

We  should  take  our  views  upon  this  subject  from  the 
word  of  God.  The  destiny  of  the  Romish  corporation, 
as  there  foretold,  is  not  reformation,  but  destruction.  It 
is  to  be  utterly  burned  with  fire  ;  because  God,  the  aven- 
ging Judge,  is  almighty.  How  sublime  is  yet  another 
symbol,  by  which  inspiration  foretells  this  her  final 
doom  :  "  A  mighty  angel  took  up  a  stone,  like  a  great 
millstone,  and  cast  it  into  the  sea,  saying,  Thus  with  vio- 
lence shall  that  great  city  Babylon  be  thrown  down,  and 
shall  be  found  no  more  at  all " !  How  fearfully  signifi- 
cant the  reasons  assigned  for  this  doom  :  "  By  her  sor- 
ceries were  all  nations  deceived ;  with  her  the  kings  of  the 
earth  have  committed  fornication  ;  and  the  inhabitants 
of  the  earth  have  been  made  drunk  with  the  wine  of  her 
fornication.  She  has  been  drunken  with  the  blood  of  the 
saints  and  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus  ;  and  in 
her  is  found  the  blood  of  prophets,  and  of  saints,  and  of 
all  that  were  slain  on  the  earth  "  ! 

Hence  we  need  not  wonder  that  in  heaven  the  spirits 
of  martyred  saints  are  called  on  to  exult  over  her  doom. 
Rejoice  over  her,  thou  heaven,  and  ye  holy  apostles  and 
prophets  ;  for  God  hath  avenged  you  on  her.  We  need  not 
wonder  that  with  loud  acclaim  they  respond  to  this  appeal, 
saying,  "Alleluia :  salvation,  and  glory,  and  hono^and  pow- 
er unto  the  Lord  our  God  ;  for  true  and  righteous  are  his 
judgments  ;  for  he  hath  judged  the  great  whore  which  did 
corrupt  the  earth  with  her  fornication,  and  hath  avenged  the 
blood  of  his  servants  at  her  hand.  And  again  they  said, 
Alleluia  ;  and  her  smoke  rose  up  forever  and  ever." 


PROTESTANTISM   DEPENDED.  395 

From  God's  point  of  vision  we  can  now  see  what  Prot- 
estantism is.  It  is  the  beginning  of  that  great  work  that 
shall  issue  in  this  glorious  redemption  of  the  human  race 
from  the  bondage  of  hell,  and  that  shall  inaugurate  the 
final  reign  of  God  in  righteousness  and  truth.  The  pro- 
cess is  simple.  The  same  divine  energy  that  shall  so  in- 
vigorate the  church  that  she  can  abhor  the  worldliness 
and  the  pollutions  of  Babylon  shall  make  her  so  heavenly 
minded  and  pure  that  she  shall  be  free  from  all  fanaticism, 
all  malignity,  all  revenge,  all  diseased  emotions,  and  there- 
fore in  the  highest  possible  degree  capable  of  a  divine 
boldness  and  unmitigated  hatred  of  sin,  such  as  the  de- 
struction of  a  system  of  wickedness  so  gigantic  demands. 
In  that  system  is  concentrated  the  highest  energy,  the 
whole  energy,  of  Satan.  "  He  gave  to  it  his  power,  and 
his  seat,  and  great  authority."  When  it  is  destroyed,  his 
fate  is  decided.  The  conflict  with  that  system  is  the 
"Waterloo  conflict  of  the  globe. 

Immediately  after  its  decision  Satan  shall  be  bound  and 
shut  up,  not  in  Elba,  nor  in  St.  Helena,  but  in  the  bottom- 
less pit. 

It  is  the  custom  of  Romanists  to  scoff  at  Protestantism 
because,  as  yet,  it  has  not  completed  its  work,  and  has  re- 
vealed many  imperfections  and  defects.  This  is  only  an- 
other illustration  of  the  unparalleled  impudence  of  that 
system.  It  had  so  corrupted  society  that  it  has  required 
centuries  to  purge  out  its  corruptions.  It  had  so  in- 
wrought the  belief  of  the  necessity  of  some  visible  head 
to  the  church  on  earth  into  the  nations  —  as  if  God  were 
entirely  incompetent  to  take  care  of  his  church  —  that 
when  the  churches  of  Europe  revolted  from  the  pope  they 
made  kings  and  emperors  their  heads.  And  how  could 
the  church  become  pure  enough  to  contend  with  a  concen- 
trated system  of  worldliness  and  iniquity,  so  long  as  she 


396         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

was  not  a  free  church,  depending  upon  her  true  and  only 
head  for  her  ministry  and  for  her  support  ? 

So,  too,  the  dogmatic  despotism  that  has  sometimes  dis- 
graced and  enfeebled  Protestantism  was  but  a  lesson 
learned  in  her  school,  and  not  yet  unlearned. 

The  extent  to  which  she  debased  the  conceptions  of 
Christendom  concerning  God,  heaven,  and  hell,  and  all 
the  doctrines  of  theology,  is  not  even  yet  fully  understood. 
She  retained  these  doctrines  in  form,  but  changed  God  into 
an  infinite  and  almighty  demon,  delighting  in  treachery 
and  carnage.  Her  conceptions  of  heaven,  and  especially 
of  hell,  were  sensual,  material,  brutal.  A  large  portion 
of  Christendom  has  not  yet  recovered  from  the  supersti- 
tious terrors  with  which  she  has  frozen  their  minds  by  her 
profane  threats  of  the  wrath  of  the  almighty  fiend  of 
whom  she  conceived  in  the  place  of  a  pure  and  holy  God 
of  love. 

Nevertheless,  the  church  of  Protestantism  has  century 
by  century  worked  her  way  out  of  the  infinite  slough  of 
pollution  into  which  all  things  had  been  cast  by  the  Ro- 
mish harlot ;  and  the  time  is  near  at  hand  when  it  shall  .be 
given  unto  her  to  put  on  fine  linen,  clean  and  white  —  even 
the  righteousness  of  the  saints.  Then,  at  length,  shall  the 
marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb  come,  even  on  earth.  Then 
shall  the  nations  know  the  difference  between  the  harlot 
of  Rome,  in  her  meretricious  purple  and  scarlet  attire,  and 
the  bride,  the  Lamb's  wife,  in  her  fine  linen,  clean  and 
white,  in  which  she  shall  be  publicly  owned  and  acknowl- 
edged by  her  royal  and  divine  Head. 

Nor  have  the  results  of  Protestantism  even  thus  far  been 
small.  It  has  affected  the  public  sentiment  of  Christen- 
dom, and  even  of  Rome  herself.  Rome  is  not  as  atheistic 
and  profligate  as  she  was  before  the  reformation  :  she  is 
bad  enough  ;  but  she  is  at  least  outwardly  a  little  more 


PROTESTANTISM  DEFENDED.  397 

decent  than  she  once  was  ;  and  in  all  Protestant  coun- 
tries some  of  her  clergy  are  in  fact  better,  and  all  regard 
appearances  a  little  more  than  they  once  did.  Let  no  one, 
however,  be  simple  enough  to  think  that  Rome,  or  her 
clergy,  or  her  monasteries,  or  nunneries  are  yet  pure.  Be- 
yond all  doubt,  as  Gavazzi  declares,  the  abomination  of 
desolations  still  reigns  within. 

But  the  pope's  most  audacious  temporal  aggressions  have 
been  checked  and  terminated.  Kings  are  not,  as  once,  his 
vassals ;  they  do  not  hold  his  stirrups  ;  he  does  not  put 
his  foot  upon  their  necks. 

The  pecuniary  traffic  of  the  great  corporation,  too,  has 
to  a  vast  extent  been  destroyed.  True  it  is  that  she  still 
deludes  and  swindles  hundreds  of  millions,  but  not  to  the 
extent  that  she  once  did. 

Protestantism,  also,  has  produced  communities  in  which 
families  are  safe  from  the  profane  intrusion  of  licentious 
priests  into  all  the  secrets  of  social  life  by  the  confessional 
—  communities  intelligent,  and  educated,  and  with  a  mo- 
rality so  elevated  that  the  pollutions  of  Popery  seem  in- 
conceivable and  incredible. 

Protestantism  has  opened  the  Bible,  and  made  God, 
through  it,  the  Sun  of  the  moral  world,  instead  of  his  en- 
emy the  pope.  It  has  established  systems  of  popular  ed- 
ucation, which  Rome  fears  in  this  land  more  than  any 
thing  except  the  Bible.  It  has  produced  industry,  intelli- 
gence, enterprise,  thrift,  and  a  striking  development  of  na- 
tional resources  wherever  it  has  been  permitted  thorough- 
ly to  unfetter  the  human  mind. 

And  last  of  all,  Protestantism,  through  the  Bible,  has 
made  this  great  nation,  in  which,  for  the  first  time,  the 
great  principles  of  civil  and  religious  liberty  have  been 
developed  on  a  scale  adequate  to  the  wants  of  humanity. 
The  power  of  these  principles,  too,  is  felt  and  feared  even 
34 


398        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

now  in  Papal  lands ;  and  therefore  Bishop  Hughes,  of  New 
York,  saw  fit  to  scoff  at  them  as  they  were  imbodied  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  great  meeting  in  behalf  of  the  Madiai, 
and  to  slander  the  victims  of  the  persecution  of  Borne,  and 
all  who  sympathized  with  them,  in  his  infamous  letter,  the 
atrocious  principles  and  falsehoods  of  which  have  been  so 
ably  exposed  by  Dr.  Baird  and  other  Americans,  who  are 
not  ignorant  of  the  abominations  of  Romish  doctrines  and 
morals.  Among  the  replies  of  such,  I  am  glad  to  be  able 
to  make  honorable  mention  of  the  speech  of  General  Casa 
in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 


CHAPTER    IT. 


THE  TRUE  POSITION  OF  THE  ROMISH  BISHOPS  RESIDENT 
IN  AMERICA. 


IT  will  be  observed  that  I  have  not  unfrequently  used 
an  uncommon  form  of  speech  in  speaking  of  the  bishops 
of  the  Romish  church  in  this  country.  I  do  not  speak  of 
them  as  American  citizens,  or  as  American  bishops,  but  as 
bishops  of  Rome  sojourning  here. 

This  language  is  not  without  intended  significance.  I 
do  not  regard  them  as  in  any  sense  American  citizens  in 
heart,  whatever  they  may  be  in  profession. 

My  reason  is  this  :  They  are  part  and  parcel  of  a  great 
conspiracy  which  now  exists  to  subvert  the  most  important 
and  fundamental  principles  of  the  constitution  of  these 
United  States  and  of  every  particular  state  in  this  Union. 
I  do  not  make  this  charge  heedlessly,  but  wittingly,  ahd 
with  a  full  understanding  of  its  import.  Nor  shall  I  leave 
it  unsustained  by  ample  proof ;  for,  if  there  is  one  prin- 
ciple of  our  national  and  state  constitutions  more  funda- 
mental than  another,  it  is  the  great  principle  of  religious 
liberty. 

Now,  of  this  principle  the  pope  has  in  every  variety  of 
form  declared  himself  the  implacable  enemy.  When  the 
Christian  Alliance  was  formed  to  extend  the  principles  of 
religious  liberty  into  all  lands,  Pope  Gregory  XVL,  in  an 
encyclical  letter  to  all  patriarchs,  primates,  archbishops, 

(399) 


400  THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED.- 

and  bishops,  issued  May  8, 1844,  denounced  and  slandeied 
with  the  utmost  virulence  the  whole  doctrine  of  religious 
liberty,  as  hostile  to  the  very  fundamental  elements  of  the 
Papacy,  as  well  as  of  civil  despotisms  in  general.  He 
slandered  it  under  the  name  of  "  indifference  in  religion." 
The  same  pope  also,  in  1832,  declared  "that  liberty  of 
conscience  is  a  most  pestilential  error,"  and  "  that  unbridled 
liberty  of  opinion  is  THAT  PEST  OP  ALL  OTHERS  MOST  TO  BE 
DREADED  IN  THE  STATE."  He  also  denounced  "  that  worst 
and  never  to  be  sufficiently  EXECRATED  AND  DETESTED  LIB- 
ERTY OF  THE  PRESS." 

But  why  should  any  one  be  simple  enough  to  wonder  at 
all  this  ?  Does  any  man  like  to  see  his  own  house  set  on 
fire  ?  Why,  then,  should  the  pope  like  any  better  to  see 
Babylon  the  great  reduced  to  ashes,  and  himself  in  it? 
The  fact  is,  that  the  fundamental,  constitutional  principle  of 
this  nation  is  a  rejection  of  the  claims  of  Rome;  and  this  has 
been  in  all  ages  regarded  and  treated  as  TREASON  at  Rome. 
The  past  history  and  present  claims  of  that  corporation 
cannot  for  a  moment  be  sustained  or  defended  on  any 
other  ground.  On  no  other  ground  can  they  justify  their 
inquisitions,  and  crusades,  and  massacres. 

The  only  wonder  is  that  any  man  can  be  simple  and 
thoughtless  enough  not  to  see  that  there  is  in  fact,  and 
from  the  necessity  of  the  case,  a  death  grapple  between 
the  two  systems.  There  is  no  neutrality,  no  middle 
ground,  between  them.  If  one  prevails,  the  other  is  ex- 
terminated. 

And  are  the  Romish  bishops  in  America  at  war  with 
the  pope  ?  Do  they  love  what  he  hates  and  hate  what  he 
loves?  Are  they  engaged  with  all  their  might  in  build- 
ing up  what  he  is  laboring  with  all  his  might  to  throw 
down  ?  Do  they  heartily  love  that  which  he  declares  to 
be  the  worst  of  all  evils  —  an  evil  never  to  be  sufficient- 


POSITION  OF  ROMISH   BISHOPS  IN  AMERICA.     -     401 

ly  execrated  and  detested  —  even  the  liberty  of  the 
press  ? 

Let  it  now  be  remembered  that  their  code  of  morals, 
though  it  justifies  perjury  towards  heretics,  will  not  tol- 
erate perjury  towards  the  pope.  What,  then,  have  they 
sworn  to  do  in  their  peculiar  and  anti-republican  feudal 
oath  ?  To  say  nothing  of  the  oath  to  persecute  and  wage 
war  with  heretics,  about  which  they  make  contemptible 
and  Jesuitical  quibbles  to  cover  up  its  obvious  meaning, 
have  they  not  sworn  to  obey  the  pope's  mandates  and  de- 
crees ?  And  what  is  this  but  an  oath  to  obey  the  most 
infamous  persecuting  enactments  of  the  canon  law  ? 

According  to  their  own  principles,  then,  are  they  not 
guilty  of  treason  to  the  constitution  of  these  United 
States  —  treason  not  in  any  declamatory  sense,  but  in 
strict  and  legal  verity  ? 

For  if  the  claim  of  liberty  of  conscience  was  in  the 
case  of  John  Huss  treason,  as  at  war  with  the  constitu- 
tion of  Rome,  if  they  burned  him  for  it  at  the  stake,  and 
if  they  have  slaughtered  millions  before  and  since  for  the 
same  crime,  then  why  is  it  not  treason  for  the  Romish 
bishops  in  America  to  conspire  with  the  pope  and  foreign 
potentates  to  overthrow  the  fundamental  principle  of  our 
national  constitution  ? 

Let  us  consider  a  few  facts  on  this  point.  In  the  year 
1828,  F.  Schlegel,  a  Romanist,  delivered  in  Vienna  a 
course  of  lectures  against  Protestantism,  and  in  favor  of 
Popery,  as  adapted  to  sustain  the  existing  civil  despotisms 
of  Europe.  In  those  lectures  he  thus  speaks  of  this  coun- 
try :  "  The  true  nursery  of  all  these  destructive  princi- 
ples, the  revolutionary  school  for  France  and  the  rest 
of  Europe,  has  been  Xorth  America.  Thence  the  evil  has 
spread  over  many  other  lands,  either  by  natural  contagion 
or  by  arbitrary  communication."  Hereupon  the  St.  Leo- 
34* 


402        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

pold  foundation  was  set  on  foot,  for  the  purpose  of  sup- 
porting, in  their  own  words,  "  the  greater  activity  of  Catho- 
lic missions  in  the  United  States"  This  Schlegel  was  one 
of  the  Austrian  cabinet,  the  confidential  counsellor  of 
Prince  Metternich.  This  society  was  received  under  roy- 
al protection  and  sanctioned  by  the  pope.  It  prepares  in 
the  seminary  of  Vienna,  and  supports  a  body  of  Jesuits 
who  are  pervading  this  country.  The  pope  issued  a  bull 
promising  full  indulgence  and  remission  of  all  their  sins 
to  those  who  should  contribute  to  the  society.  This  bull 
was  made  perpetual  and  sanctioned  by  the  emperor.  The 
tenth  article  provides  that  masses  shall  be  said  for  the 
souls  of  all  contributors  after  their  death. 

Seven  days  after  this  bull,  Prince  Metternich  wrote  to 
the  Bishop  of  Cincinnati,  —  who  when  in  Austria  had  pub- 
lished a  pamphlet  on  the  state  of  the  western  country, 
which  was  one  of  the  influences  leading  to  the  formation 
of  the  society,  —  stating  the  joy  with  which  the  emperor 
cooperated  in  the  plan  of  the  society. 

What  have  we  here,  then  ?  Is  this  any  thing  but  a  for- 
mal and  avowed  plot  to  subvert  our  institutions,  in  which 
the  Romish  Bishop  of  Cincinnati  conspires  with  the  pope 
and  the  Emperor  of  Austria  ? 

Consider  another  fact.  The  society  at  Lyons,  in  France, 
from  whose  address  to  its  patrons  I  have  given  an  extract 
on  page  17,  insults  the  Protestant  settlers  of  this  coun- 
try, laments  that  Protestantism  had  gained  the  ascen- 
dency here,  and  declares  that  "  the  Catholic  church  could 
never  abandon  the  invaded  territory"  and  encourages  the 
hope  of  its  speedy  recovery.  For  twenty-two  years  this 
society  has  been  sending  money  to  all  the  bishops  of  this 
nation.  From  their  own  reports,  it  appears  that  in  the 
four  years  from  1839  to  1843  it  sent  the  enormous  sum  of 
six  hundred  and  twelve  thousand  six  hundred  and  fifty- 


POSITION  OF  EOMISH   BISHOPS  IN  AMERICA.  403 

six  dollars.  This  society,  though  a  general  missionary 
society,  was  formed  with  special  reference  to  us,  and  has 
sent  to  us  more  money  than  to  any  other  great  division 
of  the  globe. 

Once  more  :  the  English  Romanists  formed  an  emigra- 
tion society  designed  to  establish  colonies  of  Romanists 
under  their  priests  in  the  great  North-Western  States. 
Of  this  a  full  account  is  given  by  H.  Norton  in  his  Signs 
of  Danger  and  of  Promise,  and  in  his  Startling  Facts, 
pp.  28-37.  It  is  simply  a  consistent  part  of  one  great 
plan.  On  it  Norton  remarks,  — 

"  It  may  suffice  to  say  that  the  policy  of  the  society 
is  to  imbody  the  Papal  population  together  in  the  west, 
remote  from  Protestant  influence.  It  aims  at  throwing  a 
majority  into  the  great  valley,  and  thus  to  control  the  des- 
tiny of  the  United  States. 

"  They  are  very  confident  of  success,  as  appears  by  this 
document.  The  energy  of  hope  is  apparent  on  every 
page.  Yes,  they  hope  ;  they  confidently  anticipate  the  day 
when  the  religion  and  the  government  of  the  United 
States  will  be  Roman  Catholic. 

"  Hear  this,  ye  Protestants  who  never  dream  of  danger, 
who  imagine  that  such  a  thought  could  have  danced  only 
in  the  brain  of  a  lunatic  !  Read  attentively  a  few  quota- 
tions from  this  pamphlet,  written  by  a  Roman  Catholic 
gentleman  :  — 

"  '  Judge  Haliburton  asserts  that  all  America  will  be  a 
Catholic  country.'  '  The  Roman  Catholic  church  bids 
fair  to  rise  to  importance  in  America.' 

"  '  They  gain  constantly  ;  they  gain  more  by  emigration, 
more  by  natural  increase  in  proportion  to  their  numbers, 
more  by  intermarriages,  adoption,  and  conversion,  than 
Protestants.  With  their  exclusive  views  of  salvation 
and  peculiar  tenets,  as  soon  as  they  have  the  majority 
this  becomes  a  Catholic  country,  with  a  Catholic  govern- 
ment, with  the  Catholic  religion  established  by  law.  Is 
this  a  great  change  ?  A  greater  change  has  taken  place 


404         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

among  the  British,  the  Medes  and  Persians  of  Europe,  the 
nolumus  leges  mutari  people.' 

"  Towards  the  close  of  this  document  is  the  following 
sentence  in  capitals  :  — 

" '  The  cooperation  of  other  European  nations  in  pro- 
moting the  objects  of  the  society  is  most  desirable,  par- 
ticularly of  those  possessing  a  redundant  population  — 
that  is,  Roman  Catholic,  &c.} 

"  This  observation  is  especially  applicable  to  Belgium, 
France,  and  a  large  portion  of  Germany.  They  speak  of 
those  nations  as  follows  :  — 

"  '  The  western  districts  may  be  said  to  have  a  particu- 
lar claim  to  the  patronage  of  France,  as  it  was  under 
their  former  sovereignty  that  their  vast  resources  and  fa- 
cility of  connection  between  the  northern  lakes  and  the 
first  navigable  tributaries  of  the  Mississippi  were  discov- 
ered by  those  enterprising  and  amiable  French  Jesuit 
missionaries,  Henepin  and  La  Salle.  As  to  Belgium  and 
Germany,  it  is  almost  needless  to  call  on  them  for  greater 
support  than  is  already  furnished  by  the  mass  of  Catholic 
population  daily  flowing  from  these  kingdoms  into  the 
fertile  west. 

'• '  In  proof  of  this,  St.  Louis,  risen  up  as  it  were  but 
yesterday  in  the  heart  of  this  country,  now  boasts  of 
more  than  thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  twelve  thousand 
of  which  are  German,  Belgian,  French,  and  Irish  Catho- 
lics, mainly  attracted  by  the  system  of  education  afforded 
by  the  Belgian  Jesuits,  who  have  not  only  been  the  means 
of  establishing  a  magnificent  cathedral  in  this  city,  and 
also  a  college  now  classed  so  high  in  affording  instruction, 
that,  beyond  the  commendations  universally  bestowed  on 
its  internal  arrangements,  its  rules  may  be  almost  said  to 
hold  out  the  best  model  for  diffusing  general  knowledge 
through  the  west.'71 

Again  :  the  Duke  of  Richmond,  formerly  governor  of 
the  Canadas,  said  in  a  speQch  at  Montreal,  "  The  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  ought  not  to  stand,  and  it  will 
not  stand  ;  but  it  will  be  destroyed  by  subversion,  and  not 
by  conquest.  The  plan  is  this  —  to  send  over  the  surplus 


POSITION  OF  ROMISH  BISHOPS  IN  AMERICA.  405 

population  of  Europe.  They  will  go  over  with  foreign 
views  and  feelings,  and  will  form  a  heterogeneous  mass, 
and  in  the  course  of  time  will  be  prepared  to  rise  and 
subvert  the  government."  He  then  adds,  "  The  church 
of  Rome  has  a  design  upon  that  country.  Popery  will  in 
time  be  the  established  religion,  and  will  aid  in  the  de- 
struction of  that  republic.  I  have  conversed  with  many 
of  the  sovereigns  and  princes  of  Europe  ;  and  they  have 
unanimously  expressed  their  opinions  relative  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  United  States,  and  their  determination  to 
subvert  it."  (See  Norton's  Signs  of  Danger,  p.  16.) 

In  connection  with  these  proceedings  of  foreign  organ- 
izations in  cooperation  with  the  Romish  bishops  in  this 
country,  note  also  the  fact  that  the  Catholic  Telegraph, 
of  Cincinnati,  under  the  supervision  and  censorship  of  the 
bishop,  openly  published  a  condemnation  of  our  American 
institutions,  as  "  not  of  a  nature  to  invite  the  reflecting 
part  of  the  world."  This  was  said  in  view  of  a  single 
fact  in  a  trial  in  Boston  after  the  burning  of  the  Charles- 
town  nunnery.  Concerning  this  he  says,  "  This  one  fact  is 
a  condemnation  of  the  system  of  American  institutions,  con- 
firmed lately  by  numerous  other  proofs" 

Bishop  England,  a  Jesuit,  on  his  return  from  Europe 
said,  in  an  address  to  his  diocese,  "  In  Paris  and  at  Lyons 
I  have  conversed  with  those  excellent  men  who  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  Association  for  propagating  the  Faith. 
I  have  also  had  opportunities  of  communication  with  some 
of  the  council  which  administers  the  Austrian  Association. 
The  Propaganda  in  Rome  has  this  year  contributed  to  our 
extraordinary  expenditure,  as  has  the  holy  father  himself." 

A  few  years  since  the  Association  for  propagating  the 
Faith  stated  their  conviction  that  within  thirty  years  the 
Romanists  would  have  the  ascendency  in  this  country. 

What  would  be  the  state  of  things  in  that  contingency, 


406         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

learn  from  the  Shepherd  of  the  Valley,  the  organ  of  the 
Bishop  of  St.  Louis :  "  The  church  is  of  necessity  intol- 
erant. Heresy  she  endures  when  and  where  she  must ;  but 
she  hates  it,  and  directs  all  her  energies  to  its  destruction. 
If  Catholics  ever  gain  an  immense  numerical  majority,  re- 
ligious freedom  in  this  country  is  at  an  end.  So  our  en- 
emies say ;  so  we  believe."  —  November  23,  1851.  (See 
supra,  p.  107.) 

The  propriety  of  this  course  is  thus  defended  by  Mr. 
Brownson  :  "  The  liberty  of  heresy  and  unbelief  is  not  a 
natural  right.  *  *  *  All  the  rights  the  sects  have,  or 
can  have,  are  derived  from  the  state,  and  rest  on  expedi- 
ency. As  they  have  in  their  character  of  sects,  hostile  to 
the  true  religion,  (Popery,)  no  rights  under  the  law  of  Na- 
ture or  the  law  of  God,  they  are  neither  wronged  nor 
deprived  of  liberty  if  the  state  refuses  to  grant  them  any 
rights  at  all."  — Brownson's  Review,  October,  1852,  p.  456. 

Mr.  Brownson  says  he  writes  nothing  without  the  sanc- 
tion of  his  bishop  ;  and  the  Romish  hierarchy  in  this  coun- 
try indorse  his  work.  Of  course,  as  soon  as  the  Romanists 
gain  the  majority,  the  rights  of  all  Protestants  will  be  at 
an  end. 

Such  is  the  conduct  of  these  bishops  towards  what  they 
treacherously  call  their  country.  Is  this  their  idea  of  true 
allegiance  ?  Do  they  swear  no  other  allegiance  than  this 
to  the  pope  ?  Mark  well  the  words  of  their  oath  :  "  I  will 
not  be  in  any  counsel,  action,  or  treaty  in  which  shall  be 
plotted  against  our  said  lord  and  the  said  Romish  church 
any  thing  to  the  hurt  or  prejudice  of  their  persons,  right, 
honor,  state,  or  power  ;  and,  if  I  shall  know  any  such  thing 
to  be  treated  or  agitated  by  any  whatsoever,  I  will  hinder 
it  to  my  power,  and  as  soon  as  I  can  will  signify  it  to  our 
said  lord,  or  to  some  other  by  whom  it  may  come  to  his 
knowledge."  The  interests  of  the  malignant  enemy  of  our 


POSITION    OP   ROMISH  BISHOPS  IN  AMERICA.  407 

institutions  they  swear  to  regard  as  thus  sacred.  Against 
him  they  swear  not  to  plot  :  him  they  swear  to  warn  of 
danger. 

But,  when  he  with  foreign  despots  leagues  against  us, 
they  take  sweet  counsel  together  with  them,  receive  their 
funds,  and  carry  out  their  purposes.  Nor  is  this  all :  they 
are  sworn  to  go  or  to  send  a  trusty  messenger  every  third 
year  to  the  centre  of  this  great  conspiracy,  and  to  give  a 
strict  account  of  their  fidelity  in  all  their  proceedings  to 
their  lord  the  pope. 

And  now,  if  all  this  is  not  treason,  what  is  ?  But  it  may 
be  asked,  What  will  the  Komish  bishops  say  to  this  charge? 
That  depends  altogether  upon  their  locality  and  audience. 
At  Rome,  Lyons,  or  Vienna,  and  before  their  fellow-con- 
spirators they  will  say,  "  It  is  true ;  and  we  glory  in  it." 
Moreover  they  will  sneer,  and  not  without  reason,  at  the 
simplicity  of  any  among  us  who  ever  have  been  hood- 
winked by  their  old  tricks  of  Romish  perjury,  in  swearing 
mock  oaths  of  allegiance  to  a  government  which  is  re- 
garded at  Rome  as  guilty  of  treason  and  deserving  of 
damnation,  because  Protestant  and  founded  on  the  prin- 
ciples of  religious  liberty.  Let  no  one  say  this  is  not 
charitable.  True  charity  does  not  consist  in  stultifying 
ourselves  and  forswearing  common  sense.  The  very  re- 
ligion of  these  men  enjoins  and  canonizes  fraud  and  per- 
jury towards  heretics,  and  robbery  and  murder  also,  when 
they  have  the  power  :  all  history  proves  this.  Will  they, 
then,  be  better  than  their  religion  ? 

When,  0  rny  countrymen,  will  you  thoroughly  under- 
stand and  firmly  believe  that  the  Romish  bishops  among 
us  mean  to  be  faithful  to  their  oath  to  the  pope,  and  that 
fidelity  to  the  pope  and  church  of  Rome  is,  of  necessity, 
enmity  and  treachery  to  the  highest  interests  of  this 
nation  ? 


CHAPTER    V. 


APPEAL  TO  THE  JUDGMENT  OF  GOD. 

I  HAVE  already  appealed  to  every  truehearted  Amer- 
ican for  a  righteous  judgment  in  the  great  case  before  us. 
It  is  with  joy  that  I  now  turn  to  the  judgment  seat  of 
God.  I  turn  with  joy,  because  he  is  not  burdened,  wearied, 
or  depressed  even  by  a  cause  so  vast  as  this.  When  be- 
neath its  magnitude  my  mind  faints  and  fails,  I  turn  with 
joy  to  him,  the  unfain ting,  the  unfailing,  the  all-comprehend- 
ing, the  omnipresent  God,  the  Lord  of  all  power  and  might, 
glorious  in  holiness,  fearful  in  praises,  doing  wonders. 
Before  his  judgment  seat  I  bow ;  to  him  I  present  my 
cause  for  judgment. 

To  him  and  to  his  holy  angels  I  appeal  that  I  have  not 
sought  or  provoked  this  warfare  with  the  Romish  corpo- 
ration. To  him  I  appeal  that  it  has  been  with  deep  sor- 
row, and  not  with  joy,  that  I  have  made  the  severe  charges 
against  them  which  stand  upon  my  pages  awaiting  his 
judgment.  Before  him  I  confess  that  I  am  sacredly  bound 
by  the  highest  obligations  of  truth  and  justice  in  dealing 
with  their  characters,  reputation,  and  interests. 

But  I  found  them  grossly  assailing  all  that  is  most 
dear  to  myself,  my  friends,  my  country,  and  my  God. 
What  truehearted  American  does  not  love  and  revere  the 
Pilgrim  Fathers  and  all  the  other  noble  Protestant  found- 
ers of  this  nation,  to  whose  piety,  toil,  and  blood  we  owe 

(408) 


APPEAL  TO  THE  JUDGMENT  OF  GOD.        409 

all  our  present  blessings  ?  Yet  I  found  this  corporation 
defaming  these  men  as  violent,  restless  heretics  ;  as  the 
mere  scum  of  sects  and  as  the  invaders  of  their  terri- 
tory. What  patriotic  American  does  not  love  the  insti- 
tutions of  this  country,  based  on  religious  freedom  and 
consecrated  to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  welfare  of  man  ? 
Yet  I  found  them  leagued  with  foreign  despots  for  the 
subversion  and  destruction  of  these  sacred  institutions. 

Who  does  not  love  those  pure  and  holy  spirits  who,  for 
their  love  to  God  and  to  his  word,  have  endured  tortures 
lingering  and  unutterable  in  the  dungeons  of  this  corpo- 
ration, or  have  been  suddenly  and  ruthlessly  slain  by  their 
fierce  crusaders,  or  burned  in  their  funeral  piles?  God 
loves  them,  with  whom  they  now  are  ;  he  has  treasured  up 
their  tears  ;  he  will  make  inquisition  for  their  blood.  Yet 
I  found  this  corporation  still  defaming  their  character  by 
atrocious  slanders,  justifying  their  murder,  and  exalting 
with  honor  the  bloodstained  authors  of  their  death. 

Who  does  not  regard  with  deep  and  tender  interest  the 
welfare  of  his  children,  and  of  their  children,  and  of  all 
the  coming  generations  of  this  great  country?  Yet  I 
found  that  bloody  corporation  straining  every  nerve  to 
destroy  those  great  and  blood-bought  principles  that  now 
defend  us  in  the  free  and  intelligent  worship  of  God,  and 
to  prepare  the  way  for  endless  proscriptions  and  slaugh- 
ters such  as  have  covered  their  career  in  the  old  world 
with  deep  and  endless  infamy. 

Who  does  not  love  the  free  schools  of  this  nation,  con- 
secrated to  God  and  to  liberty,  in  which  prayer  daily  as- 
cends and  the  word  of  God  is  read  ?  Yet  I  found  this 
slanderous  corporation  assailing  these  as  infidel  and  god- 
less schools,  and  rallying  all  their  myrmidons  for  their 
destruction. 

Who  does  not  love  and  revere  the  intelligent,  benev- 
35 


410         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

olent,  energetic,  pure  Protestant  Christians  of  this  land, 
expending  time,  labor,  and  wealth  in  sustaining  the  in- 
stitutions of  religion  and  education,  relieving  human  suffer- 
ing and  want,  elevating  society,  and  sending  forth  the 
heralds  of  salvation  to  all  climes  ?  Yet  I  found  this  fero- 
cious and  bloody  corporation  reviling  them  as  pagans, 
and  thus  pouring  scorn  and  contempt  upon  God  himself 
by  scoffing  at  and  slandering  some  of  the  most  glorious 
results  of  his  regenerating  grace. 

And,  as  if  this  were  not  enough,  I  found  the  same  un- 
holy and  licentious  corporation  arrogating  to  itself  all  the 
holiness  of  earth  and  an  entire  and  irrevocable  monopoly 
of  the  grace  of  God. 

Still  more :  I  found  this  arrogant  corporation  stigma- 
tizing as  persecution  all  attempts  to  repel  such  a  murder- 
ous onset  on  all  that  man  holds  dear,  and  claiming,  under 
the  shield  of  our  principles  of  religious  liberty,  the  right 
to  conspire  and  combine  with  the  despots  of  the  old  world 
to  destroy  the  very  principles  that  gave  them  shelter  and 
defence ;  declaring  that  the  children  of  the  founders  of 
these  institutions,  as  heretics,  have  no  rights,  but  that  this 
same  immaculate  corporation  has  the  entire  monopoly  of 
rights  in  this  world,  as  well  as  of  holiness  and  the  grace 
of  God.  They  claim  that  God  has  given  to  them  the  ab- 
solute and  exclusive  right  to  persecute,  and  that  to  restrain 
them  from  the  free  exercise  of  this  right  is  persecution 
and  an  invasion  of  their  inalienable^  rights.  Moreover  to 
write  or  to  say  any  thing  against  them  is  impious  slander, 
deserving  the  torments  of  the  Inquisition  and  the  stake ; 
for  they,  and  they  only,  are  infallible  ;  they  fill  the  place 
of  God  on  earth. 

"Who,  then,  is  the  assailant  ?  Who  is  the  invader  ?  Let 
God  judge.  No  doubt  he  will  judge.  He  knows  that 
they  have  brought  on  the  conflict  and  provoked  the  war. 

And  now  I  well  know  that  I  am  no  match  for  the  in- 


APPEAL  TO  THE  JUDGMENT  OP  GOD.       411  . 

tensity  of  the  wickedness  of  this  widespread  corporation. 
No  human  power  is  adequate  for  such  a  crisis.  God  alone 
is  almighty  ;  he  alone  can  meet  it ;  and  to  him  I  turn  with 
exulting  confidence  and  hope. 

Before  him  and  his  holy  angels  and  the  hosts  of  the 
redeemed,  as  well  as  before  men,  I  present  those  charges 
against  this  corporation,  for  which  I  am  ready  to  give  an 
account  before  the  bar  of  my  final  Judge.  I  have  not  made 
these  charges  in  the  language  of  passion  or  exaggeration, 
but  of  sober  conviction. 

I  have  declared,  and  do  declare,  that  without  the  slight- 
est authority  or  pretext  it  has  impiously  arrogated  to 
itself  the  place  of  God,  and  given  the  sanction  of  his 
holy  name  to  deeds  and  principles  which  he  abhors  ;  that 
its  whole  energy  has  been  put  forth  to  corrupt  the  prin- 
ciples and  debauch  the  morals  of  mankind ;  that  it  has 
been  the  great  teacher  of  fraud,  perfidy,  perjury,  and 
murder  ;  that  it  has  deluged  the  nations  with  the  blood 
of  the  saints ;  that  by  its  great  engines  of  despotism, 
the  confessional  and  the  celibacy  of  the  clergy,  it  has 
debauched  the  whole  body  of  its  ecclesiastics  and  rad- 
ically corrupted  and  enslaved  human  society  ;  that  it  is  at 
war  with  all  the  interests  of  humanity  ;  that  forgery  and 
frauds  of  the  most  atrocious  kind  are  the  basis  of  its  pow- 
er ;  that  therefore  it  cannot  live  except  by  the  destruction 
of  history  and  the  Bible,  and  therefore  it  remorselessly 
wars  upon  both  of  them ;  that  those  of  the  corporation 
who  reside  among  us  are  engaged  in  a  traitorous  con- 
spiracy to  resist  the  cause  of  God  by  the  subversion  of  re- 
ligious liberty  in  this  nation,  and  throughout  the  world, 
in  order  again  to  deluge  the  nations  with  blood. 

Before  God  I  thus  charge  them ;  and  I  put  upon  them 
the  guilt  of  the  blood  of  his  martyred  saints,  and  invoke 
him  to  hear  their  prayers  for  judgment  and  to  destroy 
those  who  have  so  long  destroyed  the  earth. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE? 

THE  very  nature  of  this  work  reveals  the  fact  that  it 
was  not  written  for  purposes  of  theory,  but  for  a  practi- 
cal end.  In  every  crisis  the  great  question  is,  What  shall 
be  done? 

To  answer  this  question,  I  would  say  to  my  fellow-cit- 
izens, Consider  first  who  you  are,  where  you  are,  and  what 
God  expects  of  you.  You  are  God's  jurors,  in  behalf  of 
your  country  and  of  humanity,  in  the  great  question  now 
before  the  bar  of  God.  You  are  in  the  age  of  light,  and 
not  in  the  dark  ages  of  forgery  and  fraud ;  not  indeed, 
as  yet,  in  the  age  of  perfect  light,  but  destined  soon  to 
become  so.  It  is  to  be  the  age  of  true  and  impartial  his- 
tory ;  it  is  to  be  an  historical  day  of  judgment  for  the  globe. 
God  expects  of  you,  therefore,  a  true  judgment  in  view  of 
the  law  and  of  the  facts  in  the  case. 

The  law  is  obvious,  alike  by  nature  and  by  revelation. 
It  is  the  great  law  of  universal  and  reciprocal  benevolence 
to  God  and  to  man.  It  is  the  law  of  truth,  of  honor,  of 
justice,  of  love.  It  gives  to  God  his  rights  in  all  men,  and 
to  all  men  their  rights  in  God. 

Is  it  not  plain,  then,  that  the  first  great  work  to  be  done 
is  to  understand  the  facts  of  the  case  —  to  know  certain- 
ly what  this  Papal  corporation  is  —  to  know  its  origin, 
its  principles,  its  laws,  its  history,  its  deeds  —  to  strip  off 

(412) 


WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE?  413 

all  its  disguises,  all  its  manifold  robes  of  concealment,  all 
its  false  pretences  and  religious  cant,  and  to  compel  it  to 
stand  naked  in  the  light  of  God's  own  truth  before  his 
judgment  bar? 

The  next  thing  to  be  done  is  to  demolish  Popish  de- 
fences derived  from  the  doctrine  of  rights  of  conscience. 
The  Romish  bill  of  rights  is,  that  their  corporation  has  a 
divine  right  to  follow  a  conscience  that  impels  them  to 
persecute  and  murder  all  who  will  not  give  up  intellect, 
conscience,  property,  wives,  and  daughters  to  their  godless 
ambition  and  lust.  This  theory  is  to  be  exposed  to  the 
abhorrence  it  deserves,  as  an  arrogant  and  diabolical  in- 
vasion of  all  the  rights  of  God  and  man. 

We  are  also  to  expose  those  defenders  of  the  Romish 
church  who  raise  the  cry  of  persecution  against  those  who 
boldly  reveal  her  crimes.  Her  bill  of  rights  on  this  point 
is,  that  she  has  from  God  the  exclusive  right  to  persecute 
all  over  the  globe  all  who  refuse  to  obey  her  imperious 
mandates  ;  and,  if  any  man  dares  to  peep  or  mutter  against 
her  for  her  butcheries,  that  she  is  unjustly  persecuted  for 
righteousness'  sake.  Mr.  Brownson  is  fast  assuming  this 
ground,  and  is  very  piously  consoling  the  gentle  popes  that, 
like  Christ,  they  are  persecuted  for  righteousness'  sake. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  true  and  only  way  of  destroying 
persecution  from  the  globe  is  utterly  to  destroy  that  cor- 
poration which,  as  claiming  infallibility,  has  enjoined  per- 
secution against  all  heretics  by  unchangeable  law  ;  which 
has  repeatedly  deluged  in  blood  the  nations  of  Europe  by 
massacres  the  most  atrocious  and  by  the  torments  and  fires 
of  the  Inquisition ;  which  still  justifies  these  massacres,  and 
declares  her  purpose  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  repetition 
of  them  in  this  land  upon  our  children,  and  children's 
children,  and  all  coming  generations.  Whatever  perse- 
cution is,  it  is  not  persecution  to  aim  at  the  utter  destruc- 
35* 


-414        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

tion  of  a  corporation  like  this ;  not,  indeed,  on  the  ac- 
cursed principles  of  that  corporation  by  perjury  and  vio- 
lence, but  by  a  public  sentiment  formed  by  God  and  the 
truth,  so  pure  and  powerful  that  it  shall  reduce  it  to  ashes 
beneath  the  soles  of  our  feet. 

If  then  these,  the  true  principles  of  the  case,  were 
thoroughly  understood,  and  if  all  American  freemen  were 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  real  facts  of  the  case,  all 
else  would  follow  of  course. 

I  say  this  because  eighteen  millions  of  free  American 
Protestants  can  with  perfect  ease,  if  enlightened  and  full 
of  moral  energy,  form  a  public  sentiment,  with  the  aid  of 
God,  that  shall  not  only  do  the  needed  work  for  our  coun- 
try, but  also  impart  new  energy  to  the  friends  of  freedom 
in  the  old  world.  Romanism,  as  ought  to  be  known  to 
all,  is  plotting,  not  only  our  downfall,  but  also  that  of 
Great  Britain,  and  is  confidently  expecting  both.  But,  if 
united,  intelligent,  bold,  and  energetic,  we  can  with  per- 
fect ease  defend  ourselves,  aid  our  brethren  in  the  old 
world  in  their  struggles,  and  turn  the  tide  of  war  to  the 
gates  of  Rome. 

These  views  involve  no  hostility  to  the  masses  of  the 
Romanists  in  this  country  or  in  the  old  world  ;  nay,  they 
involve  love  and  sympathy  for  them,  and  an  earnest  desire 
to  destroy  that  corporation  which  is  their  worst  enemy,  and 
which  is  intent  only  on  deluding,  enslaving,  and  plunder- 
ing them.  Mr.  Brownson  testifies  that  he  found  multi- 
tudes of  Romanists  in  this  country  disposed  to  adopt  and 
defend  the  true  principles  of  religious  liberty,  and  is  now, 
with  the  pope,  straining  every  nerve  to  prevent  such  a  re- 
sult. We  ought  not,  indeed,  to  confide  political  trusts  even 
to  liberal  Romanists  till  they  have  renounced  all  allegiance 
to  the  persecuting  despotism  of  Rome  —  a  despotism  which 
even  now  is  ready  to  persecute  them  just  as  it  persecutes 


WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE?  415 

Meagher  for  his  love  of  true  liberty.  But  we  can  treat 
all  such  with  the  utmost  kindness,  and  do  all  in  our  power 
to  hasten  their  emancipation.  What  the  world  needs  is, 
that  God  should  smite  the  Romish  corporation  itself  on 
the  brain  with  an  omnipotent  energy  that  shall  at  once 
destroy  its  life.  "When  he  shall  at  last  do  this,  when  the 
struggles  of  the  monster  shall  be  over  and  it  shall  be 
stretched  out  dead  upon  the  plains,  then  will  it  be  easy  to 
break  the  chains  of  its  captives  and  bid  them  go  free ; 
then  will  shouts  of  triumph  go  up  from  an  emancipated 
world. 

Whilst  I  thus  place  my  main  dependence  upon  the  pow- 
er of  God,  acting  through  an  enlightened  and  energetic 
public  sentiment,  I  would  not  exclude  the  proper  use  of 
legislation.  In  particular,  we  ought  to  have  such  legisla- 
tion as  shall  render  it  impossible  for  the  pope  and  his 
agents  to  accumulate  real  estate  in  this  country,  to  the  in- 
jury of  the  nation  and  the  detriment  of  liberty.  All  na- 
tions, even  the  most  Papal,  have  been  compelled  by  the 
steady  and  persevering  rapacity  of  the  pope  and  his  agents 
to  defend  themselves  against  him  by  law.  The  English 
statutes  of  mortmain  were  designed  for  this  end. 

On  this  point  Blackstone  says,  "  Another  engine  set  on 
foot,  or  at  least  greatly  improved,  by  the  court  of  Rome, 
was  a  masterpiece  of  Papal  policy.  Not  content  with  the 
ample  provision  of  tithes  which  the  law  of  the  land  had 
given  to  the  parochial  clergy,  they  endeavored  to  grasp 
at  all  the  lands  and  inheritances  of  the  kingdom,  and, 
had  not  the  legislature  withstood  them,  would  by  this  time 
have  probably  been  masters  of  every  foot  of  ground  in  the 
kingdom.''  He  then  details  their  ingenious  and  systematic 
contrivances  to  effect  it  and  to  evade  the  laws.  All  his 
discussion  of  this  point  deserves  careful  consideration  at 
this  time.  And  now,  is  it  not  time  to  ask,  What  right  has 


416         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

the  pope  to  claim,  through  his  pecuniary  emissaries  called 
bishops,  the  right  to  hold  directly  or  indirectly  all  the 
church  property  of  the  Romish  denomination  in  this  coun- 
try. This  is  not  merely  a  question  for  the  corporation  of 
the  St.  Louis  church  in  Buffalo  to  consider ;  it  is  a  ques- 
tion for  the  nation.  Is  it  nothing  to  us  that  three  millions 
of  Americans  are  thus  enslaved  to  the  pope  by  his  abso- 
lute possession  and  control  of  all  their  church  property  ? 
Do  we  desire  to  give  him.  the  utmost  possible  power  orer 
them,  and  to  remove  them  as  far  as  possible  from  conform- 
ity to  our  institutions  and  susceptibility  to  their  influence  ? 
Shall  we  allow  the  worst  enemy  of  this  nation  to  exert 
against  us  a  power  so  vast? 

Sooner  than  to  allow  this,  and  if  it  cannot  be  other- 
wise prevented,  every  title  held  by  the  pope,  or  any  bishop, 
Jesuit,  or  priest  of  his,  should  be  annulled  by  law,  and  the 
property  confiscated,  unless  the  church  to  which  it  belongs 
wift  hold  it  for  themselves  by  a  board  of  lay  trustees  like 
those  of  the  St.  Louis  church. 

In  all  this  there  is  no  intolerance  ;  it  is  simple  common 
sense.  Why  should  we  play  into  the  hands  of  the  great 
conspiracy  against  our  institutions,  of  which  the  pope,  the 
Emperor  of  Austria,  and  Metternich  are  the  mainsprings  ? 
Moreover,  it  is  time  that  the  amount  and  condition  of  all 
the  property  of  every  kind  owned  or  controlled  by  the 
pope,  through  his  agents,  in  this  country  were  thoroughly 
understood. 

Once  more  :  it  is  the  duty  of  American  citizens  to  re- 
move from  all  editors  of  newspapers  and  all  politicians  all 
temptation  to  play  into  the  hands  of  the  pope  or  his  bish- 
ops. If  we  are  faithful  to  ourselves,  we  may  be  sure  that 
they  will  be  faithful  to  us.  They  will  not  pay  court  to 
the  rulers  of  three  millions  of  Romanists,  if,  by  so  doing, 
they  are  sure  to  lose  the  favor  of  eighteen  millions  of 


WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE?  417 

Protestants.  We  owe  it  to  ourselves,  to  our  country,  and 
to  the  world  to  strengthen,  embolden,  and  sustain  them  in 
the  discharge  of  their  duties  as  Protestants.  As  soon  as 
all  American  citizens  shall  view  with  proper  indignation 
the  Romish  emissaries,  called  bishops,who  reside  in  America, 
their  lordly  titles,  and  gaudy  robes,  and  pious  cant  will  avail 
them  little  in  their  efforts  to  enslave  Protestant  politicians 
and  the  Protestant  press.  The  entire  emancipation  of  the 
press,  then,  and  of  politics,  from  Romish  influence  and  in- 
trigue, is  an  object  the  importance  of  which  no  mind  can 
estimate.  This  emancipation  the  people  can  effect  simply 
by  acting  as  Protestants  ;  and  they  must  take  the  work 
into  their  own  hands.  When  this  work  shall  have  been 
effected,  when  we  shall  have  an  all-pervading,  free,  bold, 
independent,  intelligent  Protestant  press,  then  the  Romish 
bishops  among  us  may  retire  as  soon  as  they  please  into 
the  obscure  shades  of  private  life.  But  if  Protestants  will 
not  be  faithful  to  their  own  principles,  if  for  inferior  party 
ends  they  will  sacrifice  religious  liberty,  free  schools,  and 
the  property  and  lives  of  all  coming  generations,  then  let 
them  not  make  editors  and  politicians  the  scapegoat  on 
which  to  place  the  sin  of  the  ruin  of  this  nation.  I  do 
not  hold  editors  or  politicians  guiltless  if  they  yield  to 
temptation  ;  God  and  his  country  ought  to  be  to  every 
Protestant  dearer  than  life.  Neither,  on  the  other  hand, 
do  I  excuse  the  people,  if,  having  the  power  to  invigorate 
and  embolden  editors  and  politicians  in  the  path  of  duty, 
they  fail  to  put  it  forth. 

Our  enemies  glory  in  our  divisions ;  by  them  they  de- 
clare boastingly  that  they  shall  prevail  over  us.  Let  us 
show  them  that  freemen  can  be  united  by  noble  principles, 
by  the  love  of  God,  of  our  country,  of  freedom,  of  human- 
ity, more  closely  than  the  vassals  of  superstition  by  terror 
and  chains. 


418        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Look  well  into  the  question  of  monasteries  and  nunne- 
ries ;  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  are  a  curse  to  the  nation. 
Nunneries  are  prisons  of  deluded  and  hopeless  victims. 
Romish  public  sentiment  and  force  imprison  them.  Unmar- 
ried men  have  the  charge  of  unmarried  women,  and  hear 
them  confess  in  these  secret  abodes.  Need  more  be  said  ? 
Even  Catholic  Spain  was  compelled  to  break  up  the  whole 
system  because  of  its  abominable  profligacy.  The  united 
testimony  of  all  ages  is  against  it,  as  I  have  already  shown 
by  abundant  proof.  Shall  this  root  of  abominations,  then, 
be  allowed  to  spread  far  and  wide,  and  by  its  pestilential 
influences  blast  society  on  every  side  ? 

I  ask  your  particular  attention  to  the  pernicious  influ- 
ence of  Romanism  on  the  morals  of  the  community  in  this 
respect,  that  you  may  learn  to  what  a  depth  of  immorality 
and  vice  this  country  would  be  plunged  if  Popery  should 
prevail.  By  the  returns  laid  before  Parliament,  it  appears 
that  in  London  the  proportion  of  illegitimate  births  is  four 
per  cent. ;  in  Paris  it  is  thirty-three ;  in  Brussels  thirty-six; 
in  Munich  twenty-five  ;  in  Vienna  fifty-one  per  cent.  The 
amount  of  immorality  thus  manifested  is  a  hundred  fold 
greater  in  some  Romish  parts  of  Europe  than  in  any  part 
of  Protestant  England.  In  Rome,  the  city  of  popes,  car- 
dinals, archbishops,  bishops,  priests,  monks,  and  nuns,  they 
dare  not  make  returns.  But  one  fact  speaks  for  itself : 
The  number  of  births  in  Rome,  by  Dr.  Bowring's  returns, 
is  four  thousand  three  hundred  and  odd  per  annum  ;  and, 
by  the  returns  of  Mittermeyer,  the  number  of  foundlings 
in  the  diiferent  foundling  institutions  in  Rome,  during  a 
period  of  ten  years,  gives  a  return  of  three  thousand  one 
hundred  and  sixty  per  annum.  Hobart  Seymour,  from 
whom  I  take  these  statistics,  says,  "All  this  certainly 
speaks  very  strongly  of  the  immorality  of  Rome,  or  de- 
clares that,  if  the  mothers  be  married  mothers,  they  are 


WHAT  SHALL  BE  DONE?  419 

the  most  unnatural  mothers  in  the  world."  An  examina- 
tion by  Mr.  Seymour  of  the  official  and  governmental  re- 
turns of  every  Roman  Catholic  country  in  Europe,  in  fif- 
teen or  twenty  folio  volumes,  enabled  him  to  say  that 
Popery  is  universally  the  mother  of  vice  and  crime.  Thus 
in  England  the  ratio  of  murders,  during  ten  years,  was 
four  to  a  million  ;  during  the  same  time  in  Ireland  it  was 
forty-five  to  a  million  per  annum,  and  in  the  most  favora- 
ble years  never  less  than  nineteen  to  a  million.  In  Bel- 
gium, one  of  the  best  Romish  countries,  the  murders  are 
eighteen  to  a  million ;  in  France  thirty-one  to  a  million ; 
in  Austria,  the  great  pillar  of  Popery,  thirty-six  to  a  mil- 
lion ;  in  Bavaria,  a  Romish  state,  including  homicides, 
sixty-eight  persons  to  a  million  —  excluding  homicides, 
thirty  to  a  million  ;  in  Italy,  in  the  Venetian  and  Milan- 
ese provinces,  forty-five  to  a  million  ;  in  Tuscany  forty-two 
to  a  million  ;  in  the  States  of  the  Pope  one  hundred  to  a 
million  ;  in  Sicily  ninety  to  a  million ;  in  Naples,  doubly 
cursed  by  Popery  and  the  most  immitigable  Popish  civil 
despotism,  two  hundred  to  a  million.  The  average  of  all 
these  Papal  nations  is  seventy-five  to  a  million.  "In 
Italy,"  says  Seymour,  "  the  land  of  popes,  cardinals,  bish- 
ops, priests,  monks,  and  nuns,  there  is  perpetrated  such 
an  amount  of  murder  that  the  number  of  persons  killed 
every  year  in  cold  blood  is  greater  than  the  number  of 
men  that  have  fallen  in  some  of  the  most  terrific  struggles 
on  the  modern  battle  fields  of  Europe."  In  one  of  the 
doctrines  of  Popery  there  is  a  direct  tendency  to  this  re- 
sult. The  Protestant  believes  in  no  change  after  death ; 
the  Romanist  believes  that  masses,  whether  purchased  by 
friends  or  by  the  murderer,  can  deliver  a  soul  from  pur- 
gatory, and  these  masses  can  be  purchased  at  a  very  cheap 
rate.  Mr.  Seymour  delivered  a  soul  from  purgatory,  as 
he  was  assured  by  the  authorized  priest  at  Rome,  who  sold 


420         TUB  PAPAL  COXSPIKACY  EXPOSED. 

him  a  mass  at  the  cheap  rate  of  two  francs.  He  was 
asked  to  enter  the  name  of  the  soul  to  be  delivered  in  the 
altar  book,  which  he  did,  and  was  assured  that  the  soul 
in  question  was  actually  delivered  from  purgatory.  This 
was  certified  by  a  receipt  from  the  priest,  which  he  pub- 
licly exhibits.  The  only  slip  in  the  case  was  that  Mr. 
Seymour  entered  his  own  name  in  the  book,  thinking,  as 
he  said,  that,  as  they  had  pledged  to  take  him  out  of  pur- 
gatory that  day,  they  would  have  done  better  to  have  been 
sure  that  they  had  got  him  in  first. 

Resist  with  united  and  irresistible  indignation  all  Ro- 
mish attacks  upon  the  Bible,  upon  history,  upon  our  public 
schools. 

There  are  also  other  important  principles  to  be  stated 
concerning  the  rights  of  self-defence,  conferred  by  God 
on  Protestant  communities,  against  the  plots  and  threats 
of  Romanism  ;  but  the  full  consideration  of  these  we  shall 
leave  to  the  coming  exigencies  of  the  times  and  to  the 
future  developments  of  the  providence  of  God. 

Finally :  confide  above  all  things  in  the  sanctifying 
power  of  the  Spirit  of  God  ;  avoid  fanaticism  and  all  dis- 
eased and  malignant  emotions  ;  be  in  sympathy  with  God, 
in  whom  love  is  almighty.  He  gives  us  the  honor  of  aid- 
ing in  his  great  judgment ;  let,  then,  his  Spirit  animate  us 
and  his  principles  be  our  guide.  Then  will  his  glory  il- 
lumine our  prospects,  and  his  victory  shall  be  ours. 


APPENDIX. 


LETTER  TO  THE  HON.  JOSEPH  R.  CHANDLER. 

DEAR  SIR  : 

SINCE  the  preceding  investigation  and  argument  were  completed 
and  issued,  I  have  read  with  deep  interest  and  close  attention 
your  speech  delivered  in  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  of  America  on  January  10, 1855,  in  which  you  promul- 
gate your  views  of  the  relations  of  the  Papal  power  to  our  national 
and  state  governments. 

Your  acknowledged  abilities  as  a  jurist  and  a  civilian,  your  ele- 
vated position  as  a  member  of  our  national  government,  the  eulo- 
gies passed  upon  your  speech  even  by  some  Protestants,  and  the 
measures  adopted  to  give  it  universal  circulation  throughout  this 
nation,  invest  your  statements  with  peculiar  interest  and  impor- 
tance. 

You  deny  the  power  of  the  pope  to  depose  kings  and  other  rulers, 
and  to  release  their  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  allegiance  by  divine 
right ;  you  declare  that,  although  the  popes  have  exercised  this 
power,  as  you  freely  admit,  yet  they  have  never  claimed  to  exercise 
it  by  divine  right,  but  have  rested  their  claims  solely  upon  the  con- 
cessions, agreements,  and  constitutions  of  rulers,  and  nations  ;  and 
finally  you  assert  that  the  pope  has  unequivocally  disclaimed  the 
right  to  exercise  the  power  in  question. 

To  sustain  your  positions,  you  present  the  testimony  of  American 
bishops,  of  foreign  universities,  and  finally  of  Pope  Pius  VI.,  the 
essence  of  which  may  be  found  on  pp.  36 — 41,  and  126  of  this  work. 

I  regret  that  I  am  forbidden  to  concede  the  validity  of  your  evi- 
dence or  the  truth  of  your  positions  by  the  positive  testimony  of 
Pius  VI.,  to  whom  you  appeal,  and  of  other  popes,  including  the 
present  reigning  pontiff.  Their  testimony  is  in  direct  conflict  with 


422        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

that  of  yourself,  of  the  American  bishops,  of  the  foreign  universi- 
ties, and  even  of  Pius  VI.  himself ;  so  that  I  cannot  avoid  the  fol- 
lowing painful  conclusions :  —  . 

First,  that  the  alleged  disclaimer  of  Pius  VI.,  which  you  quote,  is 
worthy  of  no  confidence  whatever,  but  is  demonstrably  a  specimen 
of  that  pious  fraud  to  which,  in  all  important  emergencies,  the 
popes  have  so  often  resorted. 

Second,  that  the  popes  have  claimed,  and  do  still  claim,  the 
power  of  deposing  kings  and  rulers,  and  of  releasing  subjects  from 
oaths  of  allegiance  by  divine  right,  and  not  on  the  ground  of  con- 
cession by  rulers  and  nations. 

Third,  that  these  claims  of  the  pope  are  sustained  by  the  most 
weighty  authorities  of  the  Papal  church,  including  popes,  councils, 
and  standard  divines,  and  that  your  disclaimers,  and  those  alleged 
by  you,  have  no  legitimate  weight  or  authority  in  the  decision  of 
this  question. 

Allow  me,  before  proceeding  to  the  proof  of  the  first  of  these  po- 
sitions, to  present  a  brief  illustration  of  the  nature  of  the  pious 
fraud  alleged,  as  adapted  greatly  to  facilitate  the  present  investiga- 
tion, and  to  invest  it  with  augmented  interest. 

Let  it  be  supposed,  then,  that  after  the  delivery  of  your  disclaim- 
ers and  protestations,  and  those  of  your  bishops,  in  our  national 
councils,  and  after  they  had  produced  the  effect  designed  in  favor 
of  your  church,  it  should  be  discovered  that  you  and  they  had  sub- 
sequently prepared  and  signed,  in  Italy,  a  solemn  document,  in 
which  you  had  repudiated,  reprobated,  and  condemned  the  very 
positions  you  had  advocated  before  this  nation,  declaring  them  to 
be  false,  rash,  scandalous,  and  extremely  injurious  to  the  holy  see, 
and  that  you  had  justified  your  deception  and  treachery  on  the 
ground  that  they  were  best  adapted  to  promote  the  interests  of  your 
church,  and  therefore  laudable  and  right  —  let  this  be  supposed, 
and  you  will  have  a  clear  idea  of  what  I  mean  by  a  pious  fraud. 
Upon  you,  sir,  I  charge  no  such  fraud.  I  do  not  believe  that  you 
have  so  far  neutralized  the  salutary  influences  of  your  early  educa- 
tion as  not  to  regard  it  with  just  abhorrence.  But  upon  the  pope  I 
do  charge  such  a  fraud  in  the  documents  which  you  have  presented 
in  his  behalf  in  our  national  councils.  I  am  willing  to  assume 
that  you  presented  them  in  innocence,  believing  them  to  contain 
the  real  opinions  of  the  pope,  and  that  you  did  not  mean  to 


TO  THE  HON.   JOSEPH  R.    CHAXDLER.  423 

delude  this  nation  by  ignoring  other  fundamental  documents  in 
the  case,  the  presentation  of  which,  by  exposing  the  fraud,  would 
have  dissipated  the  delusion  created  by  your  speech. 

But  I  do  affirm  that  Pope  Pius  VI.,  after  allowing  the  docu- 
ments which  you  have  quoted  to  pass  as  an  expression  of  his  opin- 
ions, and  to  produce  their  full  effect  in  favor  of  his  church  throughout 
the  British  empire,  did  in  Italy,  in  a  most  solemn  and  authentic 
document,  under  his  own  name,  repudiate  and  condemn,  as  false, 
rash,  and  scandalous,  and  extremely  injurious  to  the  holy  see,  the 
doctrine  of  those  very  documents,  and  claim  a  divine  right  to  depose 
kings  and  rulers,  and  to  release  subjects  from  their  oaths  of  alle- 
giance. I  affirm,  moreover,  that  his  successor,  Pius  VII.,  not  only 
confirmed  this  document,  but  distinctly  and  formally  claimed  the 
divine  right  in  question,  and  that  it  is  at  this  very  day  claimed  by 
Pius  IX.  in  a  formal  brief  issued  in  the  year  1851. 

The  proof  of  these  statements  is  simple  and  direct.  It  is  this  : 
By  the  bull  "  auctorem  fidei,"  they  utterly  condemn  the  doctrine  of  the 
Gallican  declaration  of  1682.  Of  the  nature  and  importance  of  this 
declaration  you  are  well  aware.  In  it  the  clergy  of  France,  under 
the  lead  of  the  eminent  prelate  Bossuet,  assumed  the  very  ground 
which  you  now  occupy  —  that  the  pope  has  not  a  divine  right  to 
depose  kings  and  rulers,  and  to  release  their  subjects  from  their 
oaths  of  allegiance.  Upon  this  declaration  of  the  French  clergy  it 
was  that  Charles  Butler  and  the  Romanists  of  England  planted 
themselves.  No  declaration  was  ever  more  conspicuous  in  the  his- 
tory of  that  church.  Charles  Butler  repeatedly  assured  the  people 
of  Great  Britain,  at  the  time  of  the  great  contest,  as  you  now  assure 
us.  that  the  whole  Roman  Catholic  world  had  at  last  come  over  to 
that  ground.  On  this  basis  the  universities  whose  opinions  you 
quote,  planted  themselves.  It  was  by  assuming  this  position,  as 
you  concede,  that  they  quieted  the  fears  of  the  peopla  of  England, 
and  gained  the  political  power  which  they  now  enjoy.  All  this 
was  well  known  to  Pius  VI.,  and  he  aided  in  producing  the  preva- 
lent conviction  by  allowing  his  cardinals  to  issue,  as  in  his  name, 
and  with  his  approval,  the  document  which  you  have  quoted  :  and 
yet  you  will  observe  that  he  does  not  speak  in  it  in  person,  nor  does 
he  sign  it  with  the  fisherman's  ring,  nor  in  any  other  way  does  he 
authenticate  it  as  a  bull ;  nor  does  he  in  any  formal  and  official 
way  authenticate  the  oath  which  you  quote.  He  simply  allows  his 
cardinals  to  say  that  he  approves  these  documents. 


424        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

Not  so  is  it  when,  in  Italy,  he  condemns  the  declaration  of  the 
French  clergy  and  its  advocates  and  defenders.  This  he  does  in 
his  own  name,  in  a  formal  bull,  officially  authenticated. 

I  need  not  say  to  you  that  the  four  articles  of  this  declaration 
were  expressly  designed  to  resist  the  Papal  claims  of  omnipotence 
in  church  and  state.  By  them  he  was  denied  to  be  infallible  in  his 
decisions,  and  superior  to  general  councils  and  the  established 
canons  of  the  church. 

But  with  special  prominence  and  fulness  was  his  temporal  power 
over  kings  and  rulers  denied  in  the  first  article,  which  I  will  present 
in  full,  in  order  that  the  pope's  condemnation  of  it  may  be  seen  as 
in  the  light  of  the  noonday  sun. 

"  We  declare  that  power  over  spiritual  things,  and  such  as  pertain 
to  eternal  salvation,  but  NOT  over  civil  and  temporal  things,  was 
conferred  by  God  on  the  blessed  Peter  and  his  successors,  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  divine  declaration,  '  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this 
world.'  John  xviii.  36.  And  again,  '  Render,  therefore,  to  Ccesar  the 
things  that  are  Casar's  and  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's.'  Upon 
this  basis  is  founded  the  apostolic  declaration,  '  Let  every  soul  be 
subject  to  the  higher  powers ;  for  there  is  no  power  but  of  God ;  the 
powers  that  be  are  ordained  of  God.  Whosoever,  therefore,  resistetk 
the  power,  resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God.'  Therefore  kings  and 
rulers  in  temporal  things  are  not  subjected  by  the  ordinance  of  God 
to  any  ecclesiastical  power;  nor  can  they,  by  the  authority  of  the 
keys  of  the  church,  be  deposed  either  by  direct  or  indirect  power ; 
nor  can  their  subjects  be  exempted  from  the  duty  of  fidelity  and 
obedience,  nor  be  released  from  their  oath  of  allegiance.  We  de- 
clare that  this  doctrine,  which  is  essential  to  the  public  tranquillity, 
and  equally  advantageous  both  to  church  and  state,  ought  by  all 
means  to  be  maintained,  as  in  accordance  with  the  word  of  God, 
the  traditions  of  the  fathers,  and  the  example  of  the  saints." 

Such  is  the  famous  declaration  of  the  French  clergy  in  1682.  Is 
not  this  the  precise  ground  assumed  by  you  in  your  speech  ?  Was 
it  not  the  professed  ground  of  the  English  Roman  Catholics,  led 
on  by  Charles  Butler?  Are  not  these  the  very  disclaimers  which 
you  ascribe  to  Pope  Pius  VI.  ?  Yet  this  is  the  very  declaration 
which  that  pope  condemned  and  repudiated  as  scandalous  and  ex- 
tremely injurious  to  the  holy  see. 

Yet  this  condemnation  was  not  made  openly  in  England,  but 


TO  THE   HON.   JOSEPH  B.  CHANDLER.  425 

covertly  in  Italy,  so  as  not  to  arouse  the  public  mind.  It  was 
effected  on  the  following  occasion.  In  a  council  held  in  Pistoia  in 
1786,  by  the  celebrated  prelate  Scipio  Ricci,  the  reformer  of  the 
notorious  and  scandalous  immoralities  of  monks  and  nuns,  to  cor- 
rect various  abuses,  the  prelates  adopted  and  eulogized  the  declara- 
tion of  1682,  in  order  to  sustain  the  Duke  of  Tuscany,  their  patron 
and  defender,  against  the  pope,  who  manifested  a  deadly  hostility 
against  these  reforms.  For  eight  years  Pius  VI.  repressed  his  feel- 
ings against  this  declaration.  Indeed,  in  the  year  1791,  he  allowed 
it  to  be  said  in  England  that  he  approved  its  doctrines,  as  we  have 
seen.  Three  years  after,  however,  he  adopted  the  following  mode 
of  condemning  them.  He  issued  a  long  dogmatic  bull,  in  which 
he  condemned  eighty-five  propositions  of  the  council  of  Pistoia, 
This  bull  is  known  as  the  bull  "  auctorem  fidei."  In  the  rnidst  of 
this  immense  Latin  dogmatic  swamp,  which  he  supposed  few  Eng- 
lishmen would  ever  undertake  to  penetrate,  he  saw  fit  to  locate  his 
condemnation  of  the  declaration  of  the  French  clergy.  The  emi- 
nent French  Roman  Catholic  civilian  Daunou  has,  nevertheless; 
brought  it  forth  to  the  light,  and  I  now  submit  it  to  you  for  your 
careful  consideration.  Thus  speaks  Pius  VI. :  —  • 

"  We  must  not  pass  in  silence  the  famous  and  fraudulent  rash- 
ness of  the  synod  of  Pistoia,  which  has  dared  not  only  to  speak 
with  eulogy  of  the  declaration  of  the  French  clergy  in  1682,  loig 
since  censured  by  the  holy  see,  but  also  undertaken  to  invest  it  with 
greater  authority  by  introducing  it  into  a  decree  concerning  the 
faith,  openly  adopting  the  articles  it  contains,  and  sealing,  by  a 
public  and  solemn  profession  of  these  articles,  the  principles  scat- 
tered through  this  same  decree ;  whence  it  follows,  first,  that  we 
have  grounds  to  form  against  the  said  synod  complaints  much  more 
serious  than  those  of  our  predecessors  against  the  assembly  of  1682 ; 
and  we  may  add  that  this  synod  outrages  also  the  church  of  France 
when  it  deems  it  worthy  of  being  invoked  as  the  patrcn  of  the 
errors  with  which  this  decree  is  infected. 

"  In  consequence,  our  venerable  predecessors,  Innocent  XL,  by 
his  brief  of  llth  of  April,  1682,  and  after  him,  more  formally  still, 
Alexander  VIII.,  by  the  bull  'inter  multiplices,'  dated  the  4th  of  Au- 
gust, 1690,  having,  in  fulfilment  of  their  apostolic  duties,  disowned, 
abrogated,  and  declared  null  and  without  effect  the  said  acts  of  the 
assembly  of  the  clergy  of  France,  the  pastoral  solicitude  exacts  of 
36* 


426        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIEACY  EXPOSED. 

us,  with  much  stronger  reasons,  that  the  adoption  which  has  been 
recently  made  of  these  acts  in  the  council  of  Pistoia  be  by  us  con- 
demned and  reprobated  as  rash,  as  scandalous,  and,  after  the  de- 
crees which  have  emanated  from  our  predecessors,  as  extremely 
injurious  to  the  holy  see ;  and  accordingly  we  reprobate  and  con- 
demn it  by  our  present  decree,  and  we  ordain  it  to  be  held  as  rep- 
robate and  condemned." 

Here,  then,  is  disclosed,  in  all  its  stupendous  magnitude,  the 
alleged  Papal  fraud.  In  England,  where  the  Romish  church  was 
weak  and  had  an  end  to  gain,  Pius  VI.,  with  the  assumed  indigna- 
tion of  injured  innocence,  has  the  audacity  to  declare  that  the  see 
of  Rome  never  claimed  the  power  to  depose  kings  and  rulers,  and 
to  release  subjects  from  their  oaths,  and  that  those  who  affirm  it  are 
heretical  slanderers.  Universities  say  amen,  and  bishops  seal  the 
protestation  by  an  oath. 

Yet  the  same  Pius  VI.,  in  Italy,  in  1794,  by  a  solemn  bull,  repro- 
bates and  condemns  THE  DENIAL  that  the  pope  has  these  very 
powers,  as  false,  scandalous,  and  extremely  injurious  to  the  holy 
see. 

•  And  let  it  never  be  forgotten  that  this  bull  of  Pius  VI.  does  but 
confirm  the  decrees  of  his  predecessors,  and  has  been  sanctioned 
by  all  his  successors,  and  is  now  the  supreme  law  of  the  see  of 
Rome.  So,  then,  not  only  you,  but  all  the  bishops  of  this  country, 
if  you  may  be  trusted,  are  involved  in  the  condemnation  of  this  bull. 
It  may,  I  am  aware,  be  alleged  in  behalf  of  the  bishops  that  they 
have  also  sanctioned  the  opposite  doctrine,  the  true  Papal  doctrine, 
as  promulgated  by  Mr.  Brownson  in  his  Review,  with  the  special 
approval  of  Pius  IX.  There  is  the  more  reason  for  this  allegation 
since  that  gentleman  assures  us  that  he  publishes  nothing  without 
the  sanction  of  his  bishop,  and  since  the  leading  bishops  in  this 
nation,  if  not  all  of  them,  have  indorsed  and  recommended  his 
work.  This  magnanimous  course  will,  I  presume,  satisfy  Pius  IX 
that  at  heart  they  are  faithful  to  him,  and  he  will  allow  them,  as 
well  as  yourself,  to  continue  to  defend,  in  his  name  and  in  that  of 
Pius  VI.,  those  doctrines  which  both  he  and  his  illustrious  prede- 
cessor abhor  and  have  utterly  condemned  and  reprobated.  Why 
should  not  the  pope  pursue  the  same  course  to  delude  the  simple- 
hearted  and  credulous  Americans  which  his  predecessors  pursued 
with  such  success  in  deluding  the  English  ?  for  the  same  course  of 


TO  THE  HOX.   JOSEPH  R.    CHANDLER.  427 

fraud  was  assiduously  pursued  by  Pius  VII.,  and  especially  after 
the  concordat  by  which  the  Romish  church  was  reestablished  in 
France  under  the  auspices  of  Napoleon,  subsequent  to  its  destruc- 
tion in  the  revolution.  This  treacherous  pontiff  allowed  in  England 
the  use  made  of  the  fraudulent  document  of  Pius  VI.,  on  which 
you  rely ;  he  left  uncensured  the  protestations  of  Charles  Butler, 
that  the  whole  Romish  world  stood  on  the  ground  of  the  decla- 
ration of  the  French  clergy  in  1682 ;  he  allowed  his  bishops  to 
take  the  oath  quoted  by  you,  framed  in  accordance  with  those 
doctrines,  whilst  at  the  same  time  he  was  using  all  his  influence 
and  energies  for  the  destruction  of  that  same  hated  Gallican  decla- 
ration. 

That  eminent  Roman  Catholic  civilian  and  historian  Daunou 
says  of  him,  that  "  he  particularly  solicited  [from  the  French  gov- 
ernment] the  retraction  of  the  maxims  proclaimed  by  the  clergy  of 
France  in  1682.  In  order  to  obtain  this  point  he  was  provided  with 
the  letter  written  by  Louis  XIV.  in  1693  to  Innocent  XII.,  [in  which, 
in  his  old  age,  and  under  the  terrors  of  the  pope  and  of  his  con- 
fessors, he  abandoned  the  defence  of  the  hated  declaration  of  his 
clergy,]  and  he  seemed  not  to  doubt  at  all  of  success.  He  hoped 
that  in  reentering  Rome  he  could  proclaim  himself  the  legislator  of 
the  Gallican  church,  the  only  and  infallible  oracle  of  the  church 
universal,  the  superior  of  councils,  and  the  sovereign  of  kings ;  foi 
such  were  the  titles  which  the  declaration  of  1682  denied  him." 
Not  succeeding  with  the  French  government,  he  consoled  himself 
with  a  new  condemnation  of  the  obnoxious  declaration.  This,  how 
ever,  he  did  not  do  in  an  open  and  manly  way,  but  by  introducing 
into  a  speech  delivered  in  Rome  on  June  26,  1805,  a  eulogy  on  a 
bishop  who  had  adopted  and  indorsed  the  condemnation  of  each  of 
the  eighty-five  propositions  of  the  council  of  Pistoia,  contained  in 
the  dogmatic  bull  "  auctorem  jidei ?)  of  Pius  VI.,  already  men- 
tioned. 

In  commenting  on  this  dastardly  proceeding,  the  Roman  Catholic 
Daunou  remarks,  '•'  Now,  it  is  known  that  one  of  the  condemnations 
contained  in  the  bull  '  auctorem  fidei '  is  levelled  at  the  approba- 
tion given  by  the  council  of  Pistoia  to  the  four  articles  of  the  French 
clergy.  It  was  thus  that,  confirming  in  all  its  terror  a  decree  of 
Pius  VI.,  without  an  explication  of  its  details,  Pius  VII.  proscribed 
at  his  ease  the  maxims  of  this  Gallican  church,  in  the  bosom  of 


428        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

which  he  had  just  experienced  so  honorable  a  reception.  We  may 
here  remark  a  specimen  of  the  artifices  familiar  to  the  court  of 
Rome.  '  Ab  uno  disce  omnes.' >J  * 

Nor  did  Pius  VII.  cease  here.  In  his  instructions  to  his  nuncio 
resident  at  Vienna,  first  made  public  from  the  Papal  archives  by 
M.  Daunou,  he  claimed  as  a  divine  right  the  power  to  depose  Icings 
and  dissolve  oaths  of  allegiance,  after  the  example  of  Gregory  VII., 
Innocent  III.,  and  others.  You  will  find  those  instructions  in  the 
address  to  American  citizens  prefixed  to  this  work,  p.  7.  In  those 
instructions  he  declares  that  the  merest  tyro  in  history  cannot  but 
know  that  sentences  of  deposition  against  heretical  princes  have 
been  pronounced  by  pontiffs  and  by  councils,  and  that  the  subjects 
of  an  heretical  prince  are  enfranchised  from  every  duty  towards 
him,  and  dispensed  from  all  fealty  and  homage.  He  calls  these 
the  most  sacred  maxims  of  just  rigor  of  the  church,  and  declares  that 
she  still  has  THE  RIGHT  of  deposing  heretics  from  their  principal- 
ities, and  of  declaring  their  goods  forfeited,  although  the  present 
calamitous  circumstances  render  it  inexpedient  and  impossible  to 
reduce  these  principles  to  practice. 

Leo  XII.,  Pius  VIII.,  and  Gregory  XVI.  intervene  between  Pius 
VII.  and  the  present  pontiff,  Pius  IX.  Pius  VIII.  was  the  special 
friend  and  confidant  of  Pius  VII.  Of  course  we  understand  his 
views.  Leo  XII.  and  Gregory  XVI.  distinguished  themselves  by 
their  denunciations  against  those  declarations  of  rights  of  conscience, 
and  those  principles  of  religious  liberty  and  liberty  of  the  press, 
which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  our  national  and  state  constitutions,  a 
specimen  of  which  you  will  find  on  p.  400  of  this  work,  which 
I  recommend  to  your  careful  consideration. 

And  now,  under  Pius  IX.,  we  meet  once  more  a  formal  condem- 
nation of  the  doctrines  of  your  speech  in  a  fresh  condemnation  of 
the  doctrines  of  the  Gallican  declaration  of  1682.  It  happened  on 
this  wise  :  Francis  G.  Vigil,  Roman  Catholic  Bishop  of  Lima,  South 
America,  published  certain  dissertations,  concerning  which  he  thus 
speaks :  "  The  grand  object  of  my  dissertations  is  to  refute  the 
doctrines  of  those  who  have  confidently  assured  the  faithful  that 
the  spiritual  and  material  swords  are  in  the  hands  of  the  church  at 
the  bidding  of  St.  Peter  and  his  successors;  that  kings  and  pontiffs, 

*  From  one  learn  the  policy  of  all. 


TO  THE   HON.  JOSEPH  E.  CHANDLER.  429 

clergy  and  laity,  do  not  compose  two  republics,  but  one  only,  which 
is  the  church ;  that,  as  in  every  body,  the  members  must  be  united 
and  dependent ;  and  as  spiritual  things  cannot  depend  on  temporal, 
the  latter  must  depend  on  the  former,  and  be  made  subservient  to 
them."  In  his  second  dissertation,  among  other  lofty  Papal  as- 
sumptions, he  exposes  the  maxim  that  "  he  who  governs  in  things 
spiritual  governs  also  in  things  temporal."  Such  are  the  dogmas 
refuted  by  Bishop  Vigil.  Thus  nobly  does  he  plant  himself  with 
you  on  the  Gallican  declaration  of  1682.  But  what  says  Pope  Pius 
IX.  to  all  this  ?  Of  course,  according  to  you,  he  says,  "  Well  done, 
good  and  faithful  servant."  Nay,  rather,  by  a  special  brief,  bearing 
date  June  10,  1851,  he  anathematizes,  condemns,  and  suppresses 
the  book,  "  as  reviving  many  of  the  errors  of  the  synod  of  Pistoia, 
which  have  been  already  condemned  by  the  bull  of  our  predecessor, 
Pius  VI.,  of  grateful  memory."  Here,  then,  from  the  reigning 
pope,  Pius  IX.,  we  have  a  new  indorsement  of  the  bull  "  auctorem 
fidei "  of  Pius  VI.,  and  a  new  condemnation  of  the  Gallican  doc- 
trines of  1682,  on  which  you  stand.  But  this  is  in  South  America, 
where  Romanism  bears  sway.  Here,  as  in  England,  so  long  as  it 
is  weak,  you  and  the  bishops  are  allowed  to  teach,  the  Gallican 
doctrine,  and  to  confirm  it  in  the  name  of  the  pope. 

And  now  are  any  words  needed  to  prove  that  the  popes  do  claim 
the  deposing  and  absolving  power  by  divine  right  ?  Read  again 
the  Gallican  declaration.  What  is  the  main  point  of  that  docu- 
ment ?  Is  it  not  a  denial  of  a  DIVINE  RIGHT  to  the  power  in  ques- 
tion? And  when  the  popes  anathematize  and  condemn  this  denial, 
do  they  not  thereby  claim  the  divine  right  denied  ? 

In  reply  to  your  assertion  that  Gregory  VII.  appealed  to  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  empire  for  his  authority,  and  not  to  divine 
right,  I  reply  that  you  are  not  only  at  war  with  the  established  doc- 
trine of  the  whole  line  of  your  own  popes,  but  with  all  the  docu- 
ments of  Gregory  himself,  and  that  you  have  quoted  no  document 
from  him  to  sustain  your  position.  Why  did  you  not  quote  even 
one  ?  But  your  caution  is  judicious ;  there  is  no  document  which 
would  bear  a  moment's  scrutiny.  Your  learned  prelate  and  histo- 
rian Bossuet  could  find  none,  and  affirms  that  there  is  none. 
Moreover,  he  expressly  declares  that  kings  and  people  have  never 
recognized  the  deposing  power  as  lawful.  I  ask  your  attention  to 
his  declaration  to  this  effect  on  p.  97  of  this  work.  Moreover, 


4:30        THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

he  drew  up  the  declaration  of  1682  against  the  divine  right  of  the 
popes  to  the  deposing  power,  because  he  knew  that  the  popes 
rested  their  claims  on  that  basis,  and  on  no  other.  Moreover,  your 
champion,  Mr.  Brownson,  whose  historical  learning  I  presume  you 
will  not  call  in  question,  is  no  less  at  war  with  you.  He  declares 
that  "  ALL  HISTORY  FAILS  to  show  an  instance  in  which  the  pope, 
in  deposing  a  temporal  sovereign,  professes  to  do  it  by  the  authority 
vested  in  him  by  the  pious  belief  of  the  faithful,  generally  received 
maxims,  the  opinion  of  the  age,  the  concesssion  of  sovereigns,  or 
the  civil  constitution  and  laws  of  Catholic  states.  On  the  contrary, 
he  ALWAYS  claims  to  do  it  by  the  authority  committed  to  him  as 
the  successor  of  the  prince  of  the  apostles,  by  the  authority  of  Al- 
mighty God,  of  Jesus  Christ,  King  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords,  whose 
minister,  though  unworthy,  he  asserts  that  he  is,  or  some  such 
formula,  which  solemnly  and  expressly  sets  forth  that  his  authority 
is  held  by  divine  right,  by  virtue  of  his  ministry,  and  exercised 
SOLELY  in  his  character  of  vicar  of  Jesus  Christ  on  earth.  To  this 
we  believe  there  is  NOT  A  SINGLE  EXCEPTION."  Such  is  the  testi- 
mony of  Mr.  Brownson.  Till  you  disprove  it  by  quoting  some 
authentic  document  against  it,  I  shall  believe  that  he  is  right  on 
this  point,  and  that  you  are  in  a  fundamental  error.  Allow  me  also 
to  call  your  attention  to  his  views  of  the  inexpediency,  not  to  say 
folly,  of  your  present  position  and  course  on  pp.  100,  101  of  this 
volume.  He  there  declares  that  you  will  not  succeed  in  making 
your  disclaimers  credible,  and  that  it  is  the  wisest  course  openly  to 
avow  the  truth. 

Why,  then,  if  he  repudiates  your  declarations,  should  we  be  so 
simple  as  to  believe  them,  and  not  those  of  your  supreme  authori- 
ties? Or  would  you  have  us  still  be  deluded  by  the  pious  fraud 
of  Pius  VI.,  and  by  the  responses  of  the  universities,  which  were 
in  fact  condemned  by  the  bull  "  auctorem  jidei,"  and  have  been  re- 
peatedly condemned  by  successive  popes  even  to  this  day  ?  Shall 
we  not  be  taught  by  the  course  'of  events  in  England  ?  There 
Charles  Butler  once  took  your  ground ;  but  now  Dr.  Wiseman,  the 
main  agent  of  the  pope,  declares  that  the  canon  law  is  established 
in  England,  which  contains  all  these  atrocious  claims  of  the  popes 
in  their  highest  form.  He  also  declares  that  the  morals  of  Liguori, 
which  are  the  profligate  morals  of  the  Jesuits  in  their  perfected 
form,  are  now  sanctioned  by  the  pope,  and  are  of  supreme  author- 


TO   THE   HON.    JOSEPH  B.    CHANDLER.  431 

ity.  The  doctrines  of  persecution  also  are  openly  advocated  in 
leading  Romish  periodicals,  (see  p.  106  of  this  work.)  and  in  histo- 
ries prepared  for  their  schools,  that  a  generation  may  be  trained  up 
indoctrinated  for  future  deeds  of  blood. 

Nor  can  you  be  ignorant  that  recently  the  same  doctrines  were 
boldly  avowed  among  us,  as  you  may  see  on  the  same  page, 
although,  since  the  result  is  proving  that  the  development  was  pre- 
mature, it  seems  to  be  for  a  time  suspended.  But  in  France,  Bel- 
gium, Germany,  Italy,  and  elsewhere,  the  Papal  court  is  exerting 
all  its  energy  to  eradicate  the  Gallican  doctrines,  and  to  establish 
the  supreme  civil  as  well  as  spiritual  authority  of  the  see  of  Rome. 
In  this  movement  the  leading  Romish  periodicals,  the  majority  of 
the  bishops,  the  Jesuits,  and  all  the  other  religious  orders  rally 
around  the  pope.  At  one  time  the  threat  was  hinted  in  England 
that  the  time  might  come  of  uniting  Ireland  and  France  in  an 
armed  assault  upon  the  Protestant  power  of  Great  Britain. 

What,  then,  if  Charles  Butler  was  sincere  ?  What  if  you  and 
others  are  ?  Generations  die  ;  but  the  Papacy,  with  its  immense 
patronage  and  power  of  seduction  and  corruption,  still  lives,  and 
pursues  a  steady  course  of  policy,  the  nature  of  which  I  have  ex- 
posed, and  the  ultimate  aims  of  which  are  fast  disclosing  them- 
selves in  England.  Even  in  France  the  Papacy  has  at  last  brought 
the  majority  of  the  clergy  to  repudiate  the  glorious  old  Gallican 
declaration,  and  to  rally  on  the  ground  of  the  court  of  Rome,  for 
which  the  popes  have  so  long  and  so  pertinaciously  contended.  In. 
South  America,  too,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Gallican  doctrines  are 
fiercely  anathematized  by  Pope  Pius  IX.  And  can  it  be  possible 
that  even  you,  in  view  of  all  these  facts,  can  longer  remain  simple 
enough  to  be  deluded  by  the  infamous  fraud  of  Pius  VI.,  and  by 
the  ambiguous  responses  of  the  American  bishops,  who  virtually 
sanction  the  doctrine  of  Mr.  Brownson,  whilst  you  are  quoting  them 
against  it  ?  Will  you,  too,  be  a  party  to  the  stupendous  pious  fraud 
which  I  have  exposed  ?  I  will  hot  believe  it  without  further  evi- 
dence. No ;  I  shall  rather  assume  that  your  numerous  ecclesias- 
tical guides,  whom,  as  you  tell  us,  you  have  anxiously  consulted, 
including  pope,  cardinals,  bishops,  and  priests,  have  successfully 
conspired  to  keep  you  in  ignorance  of  the  true  state  of  the  sim- 
plest and  most  notorious  facts,  and  that,  when  you  put  forward  your 
theory  as  that  of  the  whole  church,  you  were  not  aware  that  the 


432         THE  PAPAL  CONSPIRACY  EXPOSED. 

leading  Papal  organs  of  Europe  abominate  it,  and  that  Mr.  Brown- 
son,  in  his  review  of  Gosselin,  had  in  this  country  repudiated  it  as 
dishonorable  to  the  Papal  power,  (as  you  may  see  on  pp.  99,  101  of 
this  work,)  proving  that  "  the  principal  Catholic  authorities  are  cer- 
tainly in  favor  of  the  divine  right,"  and  of  course  against  you.  I 
shall  assume  that  you  were  thus  led  ignorantly  to  make  statements 
which,  had  you  been  well  informed,  you  could  not  have  made 
without  forfeiting  your  character  as  a  man  of  honor  and  integrity. 

Moreover,  I  shall  assume  in  closing,  as  in  beginning  this  letter,  that 
you  will  not  knowingly  prostitute  your  eminent  powers  in  advocating 
a  known  and  undeniable  fraud.  Let  me,  then,  hope  that,  in  view  of  the 
unequivocal  evidence  laid  before  you,  you  will  abandon  your  inde- 
fensible position,  and  join  your  Protestant  fellow-citizen  in  repu- 
diating a  system  the  supreme  head  of  which  is  a  sworn  defender 
of  principles  which  you  renounce  and  abhor,  and  a  patron  of  fraud 
BO  dishonorable  that  a  noble  and  ingenuous  mind  cannot  but  recoil 
from  it  with  indignant  abhorrence. 

I  am  yours,  with  sincere  affection, 

E.  BEECHER. 
BOSTON,  FEB.  17,  1855. 


M.  W.  DODD 

PUBLISHES, 

Uifb  olfoelrs  not   beire 

THE    FOLLOWING 

VALUABLE   AND   INTERESTING 
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ponding to  those  named  in  our  Catalogue,  but  also 
an  extensive  assortment  of  American  and  English 
Works. 

s 

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at  the  Society's  prices. 


Books  Published  and/or  Sale  by  M.   W.  Dodd. 

THE   BIBLE   ITS  OWN    INTERPRETER: 

A  Complete  Concordince  to  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  or,  a 
Dictionary  and  Alphabetical  Index  to  the  Bible.  By 
ALEXANDER  CKUDEN,  M.  A.,  by  which, 

I.  ANT  TKIISK  in   the  Bible  may  be  readily  found  by 
looking  for  any  material  word  in  the  verse.     To  which  is 
added, 

II.  The  significations  of  the  principal  -words,  by  which 
their  true  meaning  in  the  Scriptures  is  shown. 

III.  An  account  of  Jewish  customs  and  ceremonies,  il- 
lustrative of  many  portions  of  the  Sacred  Record. 

IV.  A  Concordance  to  the  Proper  Names  of  the  Bible, 
and  their  meaning  in  the  original. 

V.  A  Concordance  to  the  Books  called  Apocrypha. 

To  which  is  added :  An  original  Life  of  the  Author.  1 
vol.  royal  8vo,  $3  50. 

In  its  Complete  form  this  work  has  stood  the  test  of 
more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  years,  outliving 
every  attempted  substitute,  such  as  abridgments  of  this,  or 
other  works  of  similar  character  made  out  of  it,  Bible  Anal- 
yses, Manuals,  Commentaries,  &c.  As  a  help  t8  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures,  it  stands  unrivaled  among  all  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  works  designed  for  that  purpose.  It  has  been 
justly  styled,  "The  Bible  its  own  Interpreter." 

TESTIMONIALS. 

From  the  Rev.  Professor  Goodrich,  D.D.,  of  Tale  College,  New  Ila- 
Ten. — I  have  made  use  of  Cruden's  Concordance  for  many  years,  and 
have  always  regarded  it  as  a  monument  of  industry,  and  an  indispen- 
sable assistance,  in  its  complete  form,  to  the  study  of  the  Word  of  God. 

From  the  Rev.  M.  W.  Jacobus,  D.D.,  of  the  Theological  Seminary, 
Pittsburg,  Pa. — No  topical  arrangement  of  passages,  however  complete 
and  useful  in  its  way,  can  answer  (lie  same  purpose.  It  is,  indeed,  a 
Belf-interpreting  Bible.  Such  a  verbaT  Concordance  as  Crudc-n  has  pro- 
duced, is  more  needful  to  the  liible  student  than  the  dictionary  to  a 
common  reader. 

From  the  Rev.  William  B.  Sprague,  D.D.,  (Presbyterian,)  Albany.— 
It  has  been  the  companion  of  my  whole  life,  both  as.  a  theological  stu- 
dent and  a  minister;  ami  it  is  the  last  book,  with  th;e  exception  of  the 
Bible  itself,  that  I  would  consent  to  have  pass  out  of  my  hands. 

From  the  Rev.  Thomas  Do  Witt,  D.D..  (Dutch  Reformed.1!  New  York 
City. — It  is  invaluable  to  the  biblical  student,  and  the  abridgment* 
which  have  been  made  of  it  furnish  no  idea  ofths  thoroughnesn  and 
fMuess  of  th«  original  ami  complete  work  Other  works,  such  a* 
"  Gaston's  Collection,'1  "  Scripture  "Manual/'  "Analysis  of  the  Bible," 
&c.,  cau  never  supply  the  place  of  the  original  Crudea's  Concordance. 


* 

Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 


OPINIONS  OF  THE   PRESS! 

From  the  Christian  Chronicle  (Philadelphia). 
"This  edition  of  tho  Concordance  is  a  most  superior  thins;  and,  In 
fact,  the  only  one  that  should  bear  the  name  of  the  distinguished 
author.    Every  pastor,  every  student  of  the  Bible,  and  every  family, 
should  have  this  Concordance." 

From  the  Albany  Argw>. 

"Though  this  work  is  now  considerably  more  than  a  century  old, 
and  has  ha  1  competitors  in  one  form  or  another,  it  retains  an  un- 
questionable supremacy  in  this  department  of  literature  to  the  present 
hour.  It  has  been  repeatedly  abridged;  but  no  abridgment  has  ever 
approached  the  original." 

From  the  Christian  Secretary  (Hartford). 

"Every  Bible-student,  Sabbath-school,  and  Bible-class  teacher,  will 
find  it  to  his  advantage  to  purchase  this  complete  edition  in  preference 
to  any  of  the  abridged  ones.  Beyond  all  question  it  is  the  best  index 
to  the  Bible  ever  published." 

From  the  Evening  Post. 

"It  has  pretty  much  superseded  every  other  similar  work  with 
which  it  has  been  brought  into  compel! iio'n." 

From  the  Religious  Herald  (Hartford). 

"A  partial  imperfect  Concordance  is  little  better  than  none.  There 
is  but  one  complete  Concordance  of  ihe  Bible,  and  that  is  CllL'DEN'S, 
the  work  which  is  the  subject  of  this  notice." 

From  the  New  York  Organ. 

"  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that  only  the  clergy  need  its  aid. 
It  i<  i'!u;>h:,  k'ally  a  book  for  the  people,  and  no  family  should  be  with- 
out it.  It  is  proper  to  mention  that  this  edition  is  not  a  condensed 
one,  but  complete,  as  the  author  left  it." 

From  the  Christian  Mirror  (Portland.) 

"  In  every  family  it  should  have  a  place  beside  the  Bible.  It  is  In- 
dispensable to  the  thorough  study  of  the  Seiiptures.  The  Christian 
father  needs  it  The  Sunday-school  teacher  needs  it.  The  preacher 
needs  it.  No  work  of  the  kind  ever  excelled  this." 

From  the  Advocate  and  Herald. 

"Cruden's  complete  Concordance  has  stood  the  test  of  Biblical 
study,  and  will  never  be  displaced  by  any  mere  af/i-tdtfement.  A  good 
Concordance  is  the  best  help  for  ihe  study  of  the  Bible  ;  and  Cruden's 
unabridged  is  incomparably  the  best  English  Concordance  ever 
compiled." 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 

"  It  is  incomparably  superior  to  all  others.  It  should  be  In  every 
family,  and  not  alone"  in  the.  minister's  library.  lie  could  better  dis- 
pense with  all  bis  commentaries  than  with  this.'1 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.   W.  Dodd. 

From  the  Rev.  Bishop  Janes,  D.D.,  (Methodist  Episcopal  Church,) 
New  York  City. — No  book  has  aided  tne  more  in  the  study  of  God's 
Word — enabling  me  to  compare  Scripture  with  Scripture,  and  interpret 
Scripture  by  Scripture.  I  believe  Its  usefulness  both  to  laymen  and 
ministers  can  hardly  be  overrated. 

From  the  Rev.  .T.  B.  Condit,  D.D.,  of  Lane  Theological  Seminary, 
Cincinnati,  Ohio. — I  have  used  it  more  than  twenty  years,  with  a  grow- 
ing estimate  of  its  value.  In  its  complete  form,  as  published  by  Mr. 
Dodd,  I  would  earnestly  commend  it  as  the  book  that  should  find  a 
place  in  every  family  by  the  side  of  the  Bible. 

From  the  Rev.  I.  S.  Spencer,  D.D.,  (Presbyterian,)  Brooklyn,  N.  T.— 
Crnden's  Concordance  is,  in  my  opinion,  altogether  superior  to  any 
other  work  of  the  kind.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  Compendium,  Ar- 
rangement, or  Analysis  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  "that  has  ever  been 
published,  is  so  well  calculated  as  this  to  be  of  assistance  to  students  of 
the  WoidofGod. 

From  the  Rt.  Rev.  Bishop  Mcllvaine,  D.D.,  ("Episcopal,)  Ohio.— No 
English  Concordance  can  take  its  place  or  do  without  it  It  is  equally 
precious  to  the  minister  of  the  Word  and  the  earnest  reader  of  the 
Scriptures,  or  any  sort  or  condition  of  men. 

From  the  Rev.  Albert  Barnes,  (Presbyterian,)  Philadelphia.— I  have 
long  been  in  the  habit  of  consulting  the  work  to  which  you  refer,  and 
deem  it  of  Inestimable  value,  and  do  not  believe  that  it  Is  superseded, 
or  Is  likely  to  be,  by  any  other  similar  work. 

From  the  Rev.  H.  Humphrey,  D.D.,  late  President  of  Amhert  Col- 
lege, Mass. — I  have  found  it  an'invaluable  help  in  "comparing  Scrip- 
ture with  Scripture." 

From  the  Rev.  Samuel  H.  Cox,  D.D.,  (Presbyterian,)  late  of  Brooklyn, 
N.  T. — The  value  of  Ouden'a  Concordance,  unabridged  and  entire,  I 
consider  as  Incomparable  and  indispensable. 

From  the  Rev.  Francis  Wayland,  LL.D.,  (Baptist.)  President  of  Brown 
University. — I  am  happy  to  hear  that  yon  are  publishing  Cruden's  Con- 
cordance "in  Its  original  state.  To  the  student  of  the  Scriptures  I  con- 
elder  it  (I  write  deliberately)  above  all  price. 

From  the  Rev.  Gardiner  Spiincr,  LL.D.,  (Presbyterian,)  New  York 
City. — I  can  only  say,  that  if  I  possessed  but  two  books  in  the  world, 
they  should  be  God'"s  Bible  and  Cruden's  Concordance. 

From  the  Rev.  Joel  Parker,  D.D.,  (Presbyterian,)  New  York  Cltv. — 
It  is  a  work  worth  more  than  all  other  books  of  reference  combined"  for 
aiding  in  the  study  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  .  .  .  Every  Sunday- 
school  teacher,  every  family,  and  every  young  person  who  has  not  easy 
access  to  it  in  the  family  of  which  he  is  a  part,  ought  to  have  Crnden 
standing  beside  the  Bible  on  his  table. 

From  the  Rev.  David  S.  Doggett,  D.D.,  (Methodist,)  Editor  of  the 
Southern  Methodist  Quarterly  Review. — I  regard  Cruden's  Complete 
Concordance  to  the  "Holy  Scriptures"  as  Incomparably  superior  to 

every  work  of  the  kind  that  has  ever  appeared Besides 

furnishing  the  very  best  interpretation  of  the  Sacred  Writings,  It  is  also 
•  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  of  the  highest  utility  to  every  student  of  the 
Word  of  God. 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 
A  PASTOR'S  SKETCHES: 

Or,  Conversations  with  Anxious  Inquirers  respecting  the 
Way  of  Salvation.  By  ICHABOD  S.  SPENCER,  D.D.,  Pastor 
of  Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.  2  vols. 
12  mo. 

This  work  has  had  an  almost  unequaled  sale,  for  one  of 
its  kind.     For  individuality  and  graphic  delineation  of 
character,  and  for  absorbing  interest  to  the  reader,  it  is 
hardly  surpassed  by  any  thing  in  the  language. 
A  few  opinions  of  the  press  are  here  subjoined: 

This  is  a  book  of  remarkable  interest.  It  is  one  of  pastoral  experi- 
ence; and  the  thrilling  interest  that  gathers  about  many  of  the  scene* 
and  incidents  which  it;  describes,  justifies  the  comparison  which  baa 
been  made  of  it  in  this  respect  to  the  well-known  "  Diary  of  a  Physi- 
cian."— Indepen  den  t. 

It  is  a  work  of  intense  interest,  and  is  destined  to  a  wide  circulation 
and  great  usefulness. — Albany  Argus. 

We  leave  this  book  with  reluctance.  It  has  all  the  interest  of  War- 
ren's sketches,  entitled  "Diary  of  a  Physician,"  and  it  is  an  interest  of 
a  much  higher  order.  It  is  a  book,  too,  of  a  pointed  and  solemn  in- 
struction, on  the  gravest  of  all  themes.  Nothing  like  it  exists. — Amer- 
ican Bible  Repository. 

This  is  a  remarkable  book.  The  work  is  written  in  a  bold,  clear, 
straightforward  style,  that  carries  the  idea  direct  to  the  heart. — N.  Y. 
Recorder. 

We  have  rarely  read  a  book  of  a  religiously  didactic  character  that 
has  abounded  with  so  much  strong  practical  good  sense,  or  so  much 
interest  to  us,  as  this  volume.  We  warmly  commend  it  to  Christian 
pastors  of  every  denomination.  After  reading  it  they  will,  we  are  sure, 
recommend  it  with  equal  fervor  to  those  in  their  congregations  who 
need  its  counsels. — Com.  Advertiser. 

We  can  convey  no  idea  of  the  exceedingly  happy  and  triumphant 
logic  often  displayed  in  this  volume.  As  an  intellectual  work,  it  is  of 
surpassing  interest.  But  in  a  spiritual  point  of  view,  the  earnest,  ab- 
sorbing desire  to  open  plainly  the  way  to  Christ,  and  the  tender  religioua 
feeling  pervading  all  these  discussions,  give  the  work  an  interest  and 
value  which  we  feel  in  no  danger  of  exaggerating. — N.  Y.  Evangelist. 

The  pictures  are  true  to  life,  and  are  sketched  with  such  graphic 
skill  as  to  forbid  the  possibility  of  their  having  been  the  product  of 
mere  fancy.  We  earnestly  hope  that  the  work  will  have  a  very  wide 
circulation. — 2T.  T.  Observer. 

Those  sketches  that  we  have  as  yet  been  able  to  read,  are  intensely 
Interesting,  especially  that  of  the  "Dying  Univevsalist."  To  those  who 
are  fond  of  lending  good  books,  we  would  vehemently  commend  this 
as  one  that  will  be  very  sure  to  be  read. — PuHtin  Recorder. 

The  book  is  in  the  dramatic  form,  and  so  vividly  drawn  that  the 
reader  becomes  not  merely  a  spectator,  or  a  listener,  but  an  actor  In 
all  that  is  described.  Few  will  be  able  to  leave  it  until  they  have  read 
I  is  last  page. — Literary  Messenger. 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 

SERMONS  OF  THE   REV.  I.  S.  SPENCER,  D.D. 

Author  of  "  A  Pastor's  Sketches." 

With  a  Sketch  of  his  Life.      By  Rev.  J.  M.  Sherwood. 
2  vols.     12mo.     With  fine  portrait. 

OPINIONS  OF  THl   PEESS I 

Prom,  the  Puritan  Recorder. 

"The  Trifle  circulation  which  his  two  volumes  of  Sketches  have 
gained  will  render  these  two  posthumous  volumes  of  discourses  the 
more  universally  welcome;  and  we  can  assure  those  who  have  read 
the  former,  no  matter  with  how  much  delight,  that  they  will  be  in  no 
danger  of  disappointment  in  reading  the  latter." 

From  the  New  York  Independent. 

"  As  a  whole  they  are  fine  specimens  of  the  clear,  simple,  earnest, 
faithful  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  They  are  good  sermons  for  the 
family.  The  memoir  is  an  interesting  sketch  of  a  life  of  industry, 
diligence  and  devotion." 

from  the  Daily  Courant  (Hartford). 

"They  are  rich  in  thought,  clear,  discriminating,  and  sound  in  doc- 
trine, and  withal  remarkable  for  sim;  licity  of  style  and  directness  of 
address.  The  sketch  of  Dr.  Spencer's  Life  as  drawn  by  Mr.  Sherwood 
is  Just,  and  presents  him  as  an  admirable  example  of  pastoral  fidelity 
and  great  success  in  '  his  work.'  " 

From  the  Journal  of  Commerce. 

"  A  more  valuable  collection  it  would  be  difficult  to  find.  The  mere 
titles  are  impressive,  embracing  all  the  great  fundamental  truths  of  the 
Gospel.  Most  cordially  do  we  commend  these  sermons  to  the  atten- 
tion of  the  Christian  public." 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 

"They  are  fall  of  the  strong,  good  sense,  the  powerful  logic,  and  the 
pointed  appeal,  which  made  his  preaching  so  effective." 

From  the  New  York  Evangelist. 

"They  are  very  striking,  original,  clear  and  impressive  efforts. 
There  is  not  an  ordinary  sermon  in  the  volumes ;  while  some  of  them 
evince  consummate  ability.  They  are  instinct  with  life  and  power. 
The  memoir  prefixed  by  Mr.  Sherwood  strikes  us  as  admirable." 

From  the  Christian  Chronicle  (Philadelphia). 
"The  sketch  of  his  life  and  character,  and  the  discourses  that  are 
added,  give  a  clear  view  of  this  good  and  useful  minister  of  Christ,  and 
can  not  be  too  highly  valued.     They  are  a  valuable  contribution  to 
sacred  literature." 

From  the  Christian  Observer  (Philadelphia). 
"These  handsome  volumes  contain  a  truly  valuable  addition  to  the 
religious  literature  of  our  country.     They  are  the  works  of  an  able, 
devoted  and  eminently  useful  minister  of  Christ." 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 

THE  WORKS  OF 

GARDINER    SPRING,  DJX,  LLD, 

In  Eleven  Vols.     12mo.     Uniform  binding. 

COMPRISING 

THE  ATTRACTION  OF  THE  CROSS; 

Designed  to  Illustrate  the  Leading  Truths,   Obligations 
and  Hopes  of  Christianity. 

THE  MERCY  SEAT; 
Thoughts  suggested  by  the  Lord's  Prayer. 

FIRST  THINGS; 

A  Series  of  Lectures  on  the  Great  Facts  and  Moral  Les- 
sons first  revealed  to  Mankind.     In  2  vols. 

THE  GLORY  OF  CHRIST; 

Illustrated  in  his  Character  and  History,  including  the 
Last  Things  of  his  Mediatorial  Government.     In  2  vols. 

THE  OBLIGATIONS  OF  THE  WORLD  TO  THE  BIBLE; 

A  Series  of  Lectures  to  Young  Men. 

THE  POWER  OF  THE  PULPIT; 

Or,  Thoughts  addressed  to  Christian  Ministers,  and  those 
who  hear  them. 

SHORT  SERMONS  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. 

Twenty-six  Discourses  of  a  highly  popular  and  practical 
character. 

Heady  for  Publication, 

THE  CONTRAST  BETWEEN  GOOD  AND  BAD  MEN; 

Illustrated  by  the  Biography  and  Truths  of  the  Bible. 

In  2  vols. 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 

PROF.  BOYD'S    WORK    ON    THE    WESTMINSTER 
SHORTER    CATECHISM; 

Being  the  Shorter  Catechism :  with  Analysis,  Scriptural 
Proofs,  Explanatory  and  Practical  Inferences,  and  Illus- 
trative Anecdotes. 

RECOMMENDATIONS  FROM   ECCLESIASTICAL  BODIES,  THE  PUBLIC  PRES8 
4C.  AC. 

Prom  the  Presbytery  of  Geneva. 

Resolved — "That  we  recommend  to  onr  churches  the  forming  of 
classes  for  the  study  of  the  Westminster  Shorter  Catechism,  and  the 
use  of  the  recent  work  prepared  by  the  Rev.  J.  K.  Boyd,  explanatory 
and  illustrative  of  that  admirable  compend  of  divine  truth. 

"  Passed  at  session  of  Geneva  Presbytery  at  Waterloo,  Feb.  7th, 
1855." 

from  the  Richmond  Watchman  and  Observer. 
"  Believing,  as  we  do,  that  the  Shorter  Catechism  is  one  of  the  most 
complete  products  of  uninspired  intellect,  we  hail  with  pleasure  every 
aid  to  its  right  comprehension.    The  one  before  us  we  regard  aa  the 

very  best  we  have  seen.     It  presents  first  an  analysis,  Ac 

There  is  thus  furnished  to  the  parent  or  teacher  a  complete  apparatus 
for  explaining  this  wonderful  condensation  of  Scriptural  truth." 

From  the  Princeton  Review. 

After  quoting  the  title-page,  the  notice  proceeds : 

"This  descriptive  title  gives  a  just  idea  of  the  author's  somewhat 
novel  plan,  which  appears  to  have  been  carried  into  execution  with 
commendable  diligence  and  good  success." 

From  the  Puritan  Recorder. 

"  This  was  a  happy  conception.  While  it  relieves  the  Catechism  of 
Its  exclusively  didactic  character,  thus  rendering  it  more  attractive  to 
the  young,  its  felicitous  illustrations  are  well  fitted  to  impress  the  truth 
more  deeply  upon  persons  of  every  age  and  character." 

From  the  New  York  Evangelist. 

"Prof.  Boyd,  whoso  editions  of  the  Poets  have  become  well  known, 
has  published  an  edition  of  the  Westminster  Shorter  Catechism,  with 
elucidatory  notes.  The  author  has  given  first  an  analysis  of  the  Cate- 
chism, &c The  light  thrown  by  these  various  exercises 

upon  the  text  is  very  great  We  do  not  know  of  any  work  so  full  of 
suggestion,  in  reference  to  the  venerable  Catechism,  as  this;  and  as  a 
book  for  Bible-classes  and  the  family,  recalling  that  inimitable  old 
symbol,  we  wish  we  could  commend  it  with  power  enough  to  bring 
it  into  universal  use." 

From  the  Independent. 

"We  like  the  plan  of  this  Commentary  on  the  Catechism.  On  the 
whole  we  think  it  the  best  help  to  the  parent,  the  teacher  and  the 
pastor,  In  the  use  of  this  venerable  formulary." 

From  the  Philadelphia  Christian  Observer. 
"  A  valuable  and  interesting  manual  for  the  Bible-class  and  family." 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 

from  the  Presbyterian  Magazine. 

"  Mr.  Boyd's  work  on  the  Shorter  Catechism  seems  well  adapted  to 
take  with  the  young.  So  far  as  we  have  examined  it,  the  strictures 
and  inferences  are  evangelical  and  judicious;  and  we  hope  that  Pres- 
byterians will  appreciate  this  effort  to  promote  the  study  of  their 
standards." 

From  the  New  York  Baptist  Register. 

"The  book  forms  a  brief  but  suggestive  system  of  theology,  valua- 
ble both  to  the  ministry  and  laity," and  in  the  family  circle." 

From  the  Newark  Daily  Advertiser. 

"  This  little  book  of  Mr.  Boyd's  is  admirably  adapted  to  interest  the 
young  in  the  study  of  the  Catechism,  to  convey  its  lessons  clearly  to 
their  minds,  and  enforce  them  on  their  hearts.  We  consider  it  a  valua- 
ble aid  to  teachers  of  Sabbath-schools  and  Bible  classes,  and  to  par- 
ents in  conducting  family  instruction." 

From  the  Christian  Mirror. 

"Mr.  Boyd's  Commentary  is  exceedingly  well  planned  and  exe- 
cuted ;  and  we  think  it  will  prove  widely  acceptable." 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 

"  "We  hope  that  this  volume,  evidently  prepared  with  much  care, 
and  giving  an  analytical  view  of  that  monumental  compend  of  di- 
vinity, 'The  Shorter  Catechism,' mav  be  an  encouragement  to  its  more 
diligent  study.  It  is  designed  for  Bible-classes  and  family  instruction, 
and  is  very  largely  provided  with  proof  upon  the  various  doctrines 
exhibited,  and  with  illustrative  extracts,  which  will  make  the  study 
more  interesting  to  the  young." 

From  the  Boston  Traveller. 

"This  is  a  most  valuable  little  book,  filled  with  the  most  important 
Instruction,  and  enlivened  by  numerous  pertinent  anecdotes,  illus- 
trative of  t,he  doctrines  taught." 

From  the  Philadelphia  Christian  Chronicle. 
"The  admirers  of  the  "Westminster  Catechism  will  be  gratified  to 
meet  with  this  edition." 

From  the  Boston  Evening  Telegraph. 

"The  plan  is  original,  and  just  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the  age. 
The  aged,  too,  will  love  the  Catechism  more  by  familiarity  with  this 
volume.  The  plan  of  the  work  has  been  submitted  to  some  of 
our  most  distinguished  divines,  and  they  give  it  their  unqualified 
approval.'' 

From  the  Literary  Scrap  Book. 

••  "We  hail  with  pleasure  the  appearance  of  the  "Westminster  Shorter 
Catechism  in  its  present  form No  better  summary  of  re- 
ligions Bible  truth  can  be  found  or  conceived  of,  than  that  contained 
in  this  Shorter  Catechism." 

Many  other  notices  have  been  received  of  a  similar  scope  and 
character. 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 

ORIENTAL  AND  SACRED  SCENES; 

From  Notes  of  Travel  in  Greece,  Turkey  and  Palestine, 
By  Fisher  Howe.  1  vol.  12mo.  Beautifully  illus- 
trated with  maps  and  colored  engravings,  in  the  highest 
style  of  art 

OPINIONS  OF  THE  PRESS: 

From  the  New  York  Independent. 

"Few  travelers  have  made  so  intelligible  a  report  of  the  East,  free 
from  redundancy,  accurate  and  distinct"." 

From  the  Journal  of  Commerce. 

"Mr.  Howe's  Sketches,  by  their  brevity  and  popular  interest,  will 
attract  the  mass  of  biblical  readers  more  even  than  the  elaborate  re- 
searches of  .Robinson  and  Smith." 

From,  the  Congregationalist  (Boston), 
"  It  ought  to  get  within  t'ue  reach  of  all  parish  libraries." 

from  Vie  Presbyterian  Magazine, 

"  This  is  a  work  of  rich  instruction  and  uncommon  merit.  It  is  pub- 
lished in  an  elegant  style,  and  deserves  a  wide  circulation." 

Irom  the  New  York  Evangelist 

"  He  travels  with  the  Bible  in  his  hand,  and  his  descriptions  often 
throw  striking  light  upon  many  difficult  passages." 

From  the  Journal  and  Messenger. 
"  We  welcome  the  book  as  a  valuable  accession  to  sacred  literature." 

from  the  2f.  IT.  Palladium. 
"A  very  elegant,  entertaining  and  instructive  book." 

From  Norton's  Literary  Gazette. 

"His  style  is  animated,  and  his  descriptions  so  graphic  and  life-like, 
that  the  reader  seems  to  be  transported  to  the  place  which  he  is  de 
scribing." 

From  the  Western  Literary  Magazine. 

"This  book  possesses  more  than  one  attraction.  The  letter-press  is 
superb,  the  illustrations  are  numerous  and  beautiful,  and  the  subject- 
matter  is  both  agreeable  and  instructive." 

From  the  N.  Y.  Christian  Intelligencer. 

"The  volume  is  full  of  graphic  description  and  valuable  inform- 
ation." 

From  the  Merchants  Magazine. 

"  It  contains  much  in  relation  to  scenes,  manners  and  customs  of 
the  parts  visited  by  the  author,  that  will  interest  not  only  the  biblical 
student  but  the  general  reader." 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  fy .  Dodd. 


A    BOOK    FOR    EVERY    ONE. 


THE  WORLD'S    LACONICS? 

Or,  The  Best  Thoughts  of  the  Best  Authors,  Ancient  and 
Modern,  in  Prose  and  Poetry,  Alphabetically  and  Top 
ically  arranged.  By  EVERAKD  BERKKLET.  With  an  In 
troduction,  by  WM.  B.  SPRAGUF.  D.  D.  1  vol.  l*2mo. 

"  So  far  as  we  know,  this  i?  decidedly  the  best  book  of  the  kind  in 
the  whole  of  Knglish,  and,  we  beMeve  it  may  safely  be  added,  of  th* 
world's  literature." — Hartford  Daily  Times. 

'•This  volume  contains  a  mine  of  valuable  sayings  and  sentiments 
from  the  g'-eat  masters  of  lan2U:igc.  A  C.ilif»rni-i  of  Golden  Thoughts, 
ou  subjects  alphabetically  arranged.'' — Christian  Advocate. 

"This  is  by  far  the  best  book  of  laconics  ever  published.  It  is  a 
perfect  storehouse  of  thought  and  truth,  sparkling,  from  beginning  to 
end,  with  the  richest  gems,  gathered  from  ihe  pages  of  the  best  authors 
of  ancient  and  modem  times." — JVeu;  London  Daily  Star. 

"It  contains  a  rich  collection  of  great  thoughts— thoughts  which 
cannot  die,  for  they  have  the  principle  of  life  in  them." — Christian 
Observer. 

"  It  is  a  glorious  ocean  of  thought  and  sentiment,  moral  and  spirit- 
ual."— Spectator. 

"Here  is  a  book,  "The  World's  Laconic.","  that  has  not  n  single 
parngraph  in  it  that  would  not  suffice  to  leaven  a  pretty  big  lump  of 
modern  reading.'' — Express  Messenger. 

"The  labor  and  research  nec-'ssiry  to  make  up  such  a  rolume  as 
this,  must  have  been  very  creat;  but  they  are  not  greater  than  the 
good  judgment  and  taste  displayed  in  the  manner  of  its  execution." — 
Gamming**  Evening  Bulletin. 

"  It  is  a  book  where  are  enshrined  the  richest  pearls,  fished  from 
the  great  ocean  of  thought." — Christian  Intelligencer. 

"  fiere,  on  every  page,  sparkle  the  purest  gems  of  those  who  have 
lived  to  enlighten,  instruct  and  benefit  the  world,  b  their  imperish- 
able writings." — Daily  State  Register. 

"This  work  seems  to  be  carefully  and  skilfnlly  compiled,  and  gives 
us  a  great  accumulation  of  the  wisest  things  that  have  been  produced 
by  the  wisest  men." — Puritan  Recorder. 

"  We  regard  it  as  an  admirable  addition  to  our  literature,  and  it 
must  be  invaluable  to  all  writers." — .Morning  Ezprets. 

"  Almost  every  subject  within  the  range  of  human  thought,  is  here 
presented  in  a  brilliant  and  compact  form." — C.4.  Secretary. 

"  We  have  here  a  great  range,  embracing  almost  every  leading 
subject,  illuminated  and  warmed  by  some  bright  conception,  a  inn 
exquisite  sentiment,  some  pithy  and  striking  Buying  of  a  noble  mind 
lu  its  best  mood." — Hangar  Whig. 


Books  Published  and  for  Sale  by  M.  W.  Dodd. 

POETIC    READINGS 

For  Schools  and  Families.  With  an  INTRODUCTION.  By 
J.  L.  COMSTOCK,  M.  D.,  author  of  "  System  of  Natural 
Philosophy,"  <fec.  <fec. 

"This  is  a  selection  from  some  of  the  choicest  poets,  in  which  the 
best  feelings  of  youth  lire  reflected.  It  will  kindle  the  interest  and  fix 
the  attention  of  the  young,  and  give  to  the  mind  a  healthful  tone." — 
The.  Book  Trade. 

"The  selection  before  us  is  in  all  respects  one  of  the  most  valuable, 
if  not  the  very  best,  that  we  have  ever  met  with.  It  displays  flue 
judgment,  admirable  taste,  and  a  keen  appreciation  of  the  beautiful ; 
while  in  its  moral  tone,  it  is  perfectly  unexceptionable." — The 
Family  Friend. 

"We  cordially  recommend  to  all  young  renders  this  charming  col- 
lection. It  is  executed  with  soundness  of  judgment,  delicacy  of  taste, 
and  great  range  of  research  ;  and  no  school  ought  to  be  without  it."— 
Home  Journal. 

"The  poetry  is  of  the  highest  moral  stamp,  of  the  very  character 
fitted  to  cultivate  intellect  and  heart." — Spectator. 

"The  collection  is  from  the  best  pens,  the  Howitts,  Taylors.  Bernard 
Barton,  Cowper,  and  other*,  "household  words."  and  is  made  in  ex- 
cellent tusto  and  keeping  ;  and  it  is  a  book,  out  of  its  very  simplicity, 
in  which  :ige  cnn  find  as  much  delight  and  heart  nutriment  as  youth  a 
welcome  little  volume." — Literary  World.. 

"A  very  handsome  collection  of  choice  poems  from  the  first  au- 
thors. Among  them  we  notice  that  touching  ballad, ''The  Children 
in  the  Wood,"  John  Gilpin,  Cassabianca,  and  a  hundred  others  of 
equal  interest  to  the  young." — Daily  Mercury. 

"  Parents  and  Sabb-tth  School  touchers  will  find  this  a  book  from 
which  their  children  can  commit  most  excellent  pieces  to  memory." — 
Watchman  and  Reflector. 

"These  selections  of  poetry  for  the  young  present  an  admirable 
mirror,  in  which  they  may  see  their  own  best  feelings  reflected,  and 
wherein  whatsoever  is  excellent  is  set  before  them  in  the  most  attrac 
live  form." — Hunt's  Merchant's  Magazine. 

SOVEREIGNS   OF  THE   BIBLE. 

By  ELIZA  R.  STEELE,  Author  of  "  Heroines  of  Sacred 
History,"  Ac.  With  illuminated  title  and  numerous  fine 
illustrations.  12mo. 

"We  have  here  the  scattered  facts  in  the  lives  of  the  Kings  of 
Israel  and  Judah,  skilfully  arranired  into  continuous  narratives,  which 
are  at  once  highly  instructive  and  deeply  monitory." — Albany  Argus. 

"It  will  give  order  and  distinctness  to  all  previous  acquaintance 
with  Jewish  history." — Spectator. 

"  It  will  be  a  useful  and  interesting  work  for  the  Sunday  School  and 
home  libraries." — Newark  Daily. 

"The  book  deserves  high  commendation,  and  will  be  extensively 
read." — Jfont  Journal, 


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